Talbot Forest Walks in Geraldine – Day 206

Today’s our third day in Geraldine and we need to find something to do. We were meant to be going on a canyoning trip but that’s been cancelled it’s just gonna be one of those days where things aren’t going quite right.

This morning we’re waking up in the beautiful Rawhiti Backpackers where today we don’t really have much of a plan but our hosts at the backpackers suggested that we go check out the Talbot Forest.

Let’s see what this track has to offer. It has no time on it so who knows. It’s either super long or super short. Who knows what we’re getting ourselves into.

The Talbot Forest is a scenic reserve pretty much found in the centre of the little township of Geraldine and it’s connected with a whole network of walks that are really short really easy to do but you just seem to dive into this completely native forest which is around 800 years old.

The first track that we’re checking out is the Kahikatea Track named after the tallest type of tree that you can find in New Zealand native forest they can reach up to 40m tall and there’s a ton of them right here in the Talbot Forest, the really cool thing about going on New Zealand bushwalks though is that you can often see a lot of native wildlife for instance we’re on the lookout for a fantail.

Throughout all the guided tours that we’ve been doing we gathered heaps of tips on how to attract New Zealand wildlife including how to mimic the fantail’s call.

And within only seconds a fantail is coming down from the top of the trees to check us out they are super inquisitive and that fantail call definitely attracts it. That’s just awesome.

The track then leads us to a massive picnic area and then leads us to the next track. The next track that we’re gonna be tackling is the totara track the good thing about all those little tracks that we’re doing is that they’re all about 10-15 minutes long so we can do a lot today.

the Totara Track is leading us to well a lot of totara trees and the oldest one in this forest is 800 years old. Totara trees are huge and they used to be used by Maori t create waka which are their war canoes and the biggest trees could produce canoes that could up to 100 warriors.

The Totara Track then leads us onto another little track called the Matai Track named after another group of trees found in this forest and these trees have to be my favourite they have such weird markings on them and little bit like those army cameo markings.

I know, it just caught my interest.

The Talbot Forest is quite small forest at only 26 hectares but this is actually what the whole Canterbury area used to look like before the humans migrated to New Zealand.

Despite the forest being super close to the Geraldine town centre it really feels like we’re in a super wild environment there’s a lot of really interesting vegetation to look at among the giant trees there’s all these vines that are wrapping themselves around each other it really has a lot to see.

The final track that we’re hitting today is the Reservoir Track pretty much named cos there’s a bit of a reservoir in the middle of it but we do see some more wildlife which is there cute little dragonflies, who says it’s all about the birds in New Zealand? There’s some pretty cool insects as well.

And around the end of the Reservoir Track we are lead back to the Matai Track which is gonna take us back all the way to our campervan so we are passing beautiful totara trees again, beautiful matai trees again and a lot of really lush luxuriant New Zealand forest.

Before we round up this track we have forgotten to mention there are heaps of information panels along the way about the early Maori settlers that made a big mark into the region back in the days.

But it’s now time for us to head back toward our campervan and make our way back to the Rawhiti Backpackers without forgetting to stop by the supermarket.

So yeah, everything was a great and everything was going good but then we decided to go to the supermarket, but some bread and ice cream, and one of the roof beams decided to lodge itself into the campervan. Admittedly I kind of drove into it. So we now have a massive hole right here right above where we sleep which is fantastic.

In short, Robin is peed off but at least there’s plenty of entertainment at the Rawhiti Backpackers like this swingball set I mean, whose played this game since they were 9? At least it’s a good way to keep your mind off your campervan problems.

Shoot happens and we’ll just have to be more careful next time. And to top it all off, Robin brakes his jandals and he is not happy about it.