Awash for history for Conservation Week

Take a really rainy Taranaki day, add some snow for good measure, mix it with stories from master storyteller Dave Rogers and you have a fantastic Conservation Week event. Undeterred by dismal weather, the Department of Conservation Stratford Area Office kicked off Conservation Week with a guided historic walk around Dawson Falls on Mt Egmont/Taranaki.
Long-term DOC Officer Dave Rogers shared his decades of knowledge of Egmont National Park with a keen group of participants.
He brought to life the figures depicted on the magnificent Pouwhenua o Nga Ruahine outside the visitor centre and painted a verbal picture of a time when holiday-makers stayed at the tourist lodge (still powered by the oldest continuously running power station) and played tennis during the summer and skated on an ice rink in the winter.
A highlight of the trip was a visit to Te Rere o Kapuni ? a sacred waterfall in the Kapuni River where Ratana had a vision and heard words of Titokowaru and sayings left by prophets, Te Whiti and Tohu. He was thus inspired to improve Maori wellbeing and thus the still-strong political movement of Ratana was born.
Dave not only pointed out historic features as the group sloshed its way through rain and snow, but also some of the quirks of the vegetation in the area.
These included the mountain's cloud forest where distorted kamahi trees (due to high rainfall washing away nutrients) grow quite deformed and moss drips from the branches. The group learned about koromiko, the tips of which can be used to treat both constipation and diarrhoea and five finger, a favoured plant of possums which rip off the leaves, munch away at the carrot-tasting stalk and scatter the discarded leaves below.