The Great ACT-NSW-NZ Trip, 2023-2024 - Chapman Road Scientific Reserve
Another place of scientific interest that was promptly put on the To-Do list when @purrdence found out about it. The reserve was established to preserve the salt-pan habitat, which used to be much more common in Central Otago until agriculture and irrigation trashed most of them.
As a result the reserve is one of the few places in Central Otago that still has salt-loving plants like Atriplex buchananii, and two species of moth that feed on that plant - Paranotoreas fulva and an undescribed Loxostege.
Unfortunately the reserve is also overrun with introduced weeds, but at least a few were new to me. I also got a closer look at Golden scabweed than I did in Cromwell, where I had to lean over the fence.