The storms have subsided and the sun is back in evidence (I know, I know, it didn't really go away - it just felt like that). In the late afternoon the wintery sunlight was lighting up parts of Otari Native Botanic Garden, emphasising the wonderful plant shapes and textures of some of the plants growing there.
Looking across the lichen encrusted rocks of the alpine garden, the dappled light playing on the low growing alpine plants and the grasses and Astelia. Behind them, and opened up by some tree loss from the storm, the backlit trees, shrubs and ferns bordering the fernery area.
And some of the shapes and textures of New Zealand native plants are, frankly, a bit weird...
The spiny shapes and the jagged edged textures of Pseudopanax ferox - the so-called fierce pseudopanax. These are the juvenile forms, but they don't get much more conventionally tree-like when mature. Just a clump of these jaggedy leaves atop a skinny trunk.
Despite the ferocious name, they have a rather comical appearance I think - in any case, I had lots of fun trying to get an image that showed their wonderful weirdness.