Scenes from Whirinaki Forest

Setting out for a three-day walk in Whirinaki forest, near Te Urewera

Foxgloves flank the track near Skips Hut

Ongaonga/stinging nettle bristles with prickles

Prickly stinging nettle doesn't bother admiral butterflies, which feed on the plant

Cinnabar moth was introduced to New Zealand to control ragwort

Geographer Robin Kearns among tree ferns and podocarps

Tracks in Whirinaki are carpeted with colourful beech leaves

Rogers Hut, built by deer cullers in 1952

Stained glass window in Rogers Hut

Autographed tin lids decorate hand-adzed beech timbers in Rogers Hut

View of beech forest from Moerangi Hut

Mid-morning tea break in mossy, ferny forest

Bed of Moerangi Stream

Beech leaves floating in Moerangi Stream

Tiny green fists are unfurling tips of fern fronds

Tree fern koru

Lofty forest near River Road car park, where many walkers set out into Whirinaki Forest

Vines snake around the buttress roots of a forest giant

Rata vines have almost surrounded a podocarp trunk