Rainbow Mountain

After Wai-O-Tapu, I hiked up Rainbow Mountain. It is named for the many colored layers of rock and soil that it is formed from. However, the eruption of Mount Tawera in 1886 covered a lot of the layers and colors in ash, so it is not as dramatic as it used to be. One of the nice things about the hour 2 hour walk was that the mountain is covered primarily in native bush instead of the boring old California pines where we work. Unfortunately, I did not have my guide book with me, so it was hard to ID a lot of things, but it was a good start getting introduced to some of the different plant forms here. I did see five-fingers, lots of fern, and some rimu. Otherwise, I need my book.