roots, and when lake levels are high it is possible to travel by kayak through forests of 30 m trees, one of the few places on the West Coast where this is easily done. The lakeside kahikatea and flax (Phormium tenax) community includes small-leaved divaricating shrubs like mingimingi and Coprosma rhamnoides, and the trees rimu and kamahi. Much of the forest on the flats and surrounding hills is tall podocarp forest, predominantly kahihatea, rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), tōtara (Podocarpus totara), and silver pine/manoao (Manoao colensoi), which can reach the lake edge at places like the Hohonu River. The drier forest away from the lake edge is dominated by rimu, mataī (Prumnopitys taxifolia), Hall's tōtara (Podocarpus laetus), and needle-leafed tōtara (P. acutifolius). On the higher slopes the forest is predominantly southern beech (formerly Nothofagus). In the understory can be found wheki-ponga (Dicksonia fibrosa), distinguished by its skirt of dead fronds, marble-leaf (Carpodetus serratus), and the climbing rātā Metrosideros perforata. On the forest floor ferns include crown fern (Lomaria discolor), hanging spleenwort (Asplenium flaccidum) growing as an epiphyte on tree trunks, Prince of Wales feathers fern (Leptopteris superba), and filmy ferns (Hymenophyllum). These are most easily observed from the Rakaitane Walk. Māori occupied both Takataka (Refuge Island) and Takatakaiti until about 1850, clearing all the forest and leaving only bracken fern (Pteridium esculentum). Because the islands have no deer or possums, vegetation was able to regenerate undisturbed. Takataka was declared a Scenic Reserve in 1944. A vegetation survey in 1978 found young podocarp forest on the southern part of Takataka and scrub elsewhere; this has since become low forest, with only a small patch of bracken remaining. The phytoplankton of Lake Brunner is composed mostly of diatoms, Chlorophyceae, and Chrysophyceae. It contains species of Staurastrum, Volvox, and Asterionella (specifically Asterionella formosa) that are common in lakes on the East Coast, but rare in the West. Fauna Both the white-faced heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) and the white heron / kōtuku (Ardea modesta) occur at Lake Brunner, and waterfowl include black swans (Cygnus atratus), Canada geese (Branta canadensis), scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae), paradise shelducks (Tadorna variegata), grey ducks (Anas superciliosa), mallards (A. platyrhynchos), and coots (Fulica atra). Little shags (Phalacrocorax melanoleucos) and black shags (P. carbo) can both be found. Birdlife is most common and easily-observed in Iveagh Bay. Fernbirds can often be seen in the mixed kahikatea/flax vegetation on the track to Bain Bay. The New