Jan 6, 2026 Buller River & Beech Forest
Today we took two walks, the first along the Buller River, the only outlet from Lake Rotoiti.
Crystal clear water flows out to become a recreational river mecca for white water rafting, jet-boating and fly-fishing for brown trout!
We then drove to the other side of the lake to walk through the “honeydew forest” of beech trees. The unique relationships between a species of NZ beech trees, a microscopic tree scale insect and a black fungus creates a fairytale forest of heady aroma! The spicy sweet scent is hard to describe, not flowery, but more honey scented with a back hint of baby powder. The sweet ‘honeydew’ droplets of nectar flow out of tiny hair-like anal filaments of the scale insect that is burrowed into the bark of the beech tree. The ‘sooty mould’ grows where the honeydew is dripping and eventually coats the infected trees and appears to flow off the trees onto anything in the surrounding area. The sooty mould feels rubbery on the trunks of the trees. Walking through the honeydew forest you can imagine elves or fairies living amongst the ferns and mosses covering the forest floor along the banks of streams flowing down the steep rocky slopes of the mountains surrounding the glacial lake.
A closeup of a beech tree infected with the honeydew scale insect. in the middle is an anal filament with a droplet of the ‘honeydew’, the waste product of the sap-sucking insect. There are other fungi growing in the forest too, 3 samples found on our walk.
The roots of a long ago fallen tree, covered with ferns.