HONEYDEW WALK

This walk branches off from the Bellbird Walk. It takes you further into the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project area along a high-standard track. The surface is suitable for wheelchairs but would need someone to push on the steeper slopes.

The blackened trunks and branches of most of the red and mountain beech trees along the walk are brought about by a small scale insect that buries itself within the bark of the tree.

This insect feeds on the sugar-rich sapwood of the tree and excretes any excess sugar surplus to its requirements out through a long, white, hair-like anal tube. The black sooty mould that coats these trees, without harming them, thrives on the sticky ‘honeydew’ produced by the scale insect. Many animals, such as nectar-feeding birds, insects and lizards, rely heavily on collecting these nutritious honeydew droplets for food.

Bellbirds and Tūī are common in this area, and you may see robins, tomtits and fantails. You may also glimpse Kākā or hear Kākāriki chattering as they fly through the canopy.