Autumn in Reefton

July 20, 2020

The mountains that surround Reefton are clothed in native bush. Native trees are evergreen and very textured. Layers of trees form the bush, with an upper canopy of beech and rimu trees, a middle canopy of smaller trees and a dense layer of groundcovers including mosses and ferns covering rocks, with streams and water dripping down. Before the town of Reefton was established by Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish miners and their families in the 19th century,  Maori travelled through. It would have been tough going through the bush, rivers and swamps. The European settlers cleared the bush to establish service towns, and planted many trees from home. These oaks, maples and rhododendrons, give Reefton a glorious blaze of splendour in the autumn, before the bare branches of winter.