I wrote about the fire at Owhiro Bay back in February. Two months later, there had been almost no rain, and the blackened scrub was stark against the dry soil.
Looking across to the hills, the distant green of native shrubs and gorse plants contrasted with the blackened areas consumed by the fire. A stand of pine trees showed almost no damage but in the foreground there was a large macrocarpa which had been badly injured and a blackened stump had fallen beside it. There was a contrasting pattern made by the fire-delivered plant death - skeletal black branches and soft bleached shrubby mounds. These photos were taken on an atmospheric grey day with clouds which did not deliver, and seagulls circling in the sky providing a rather sinister presence.
Closer up a lone tree on a ridge, probably a native Pseudopanax, provided a glimpse of green among the charred branches. Gorse seemed to have been thoroughly consumed by the fire, and I wondered whether it fuelled the fire more than the native plants did, but what I saw did not enlighten me.
Since I took these photos a month ago there has been rain, decent rain. I intended to go back today but didn't have the opportunity - so tomorrow I hope to see what difference this rainy month has made.