Me and the thistle are a long way from home on the Lake Okareka walkway.

The thistle plant and I are a long way from home, and we both enjoy the New Zealand climate. I found this specimen on a ramble along the Okareka walkway.

The sturdy thistle plant grows profusely in Scotland but seems to struggle along the Okareka walkway. Unsurprisingly animals are deterred from munching through the plant by its prickly defences. The issue for thistles in this locality is that natives gang up on them and squeeze them out.

According to the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, the Scotch Thistle became naturalised in New Zealand in 1867. Plants that have escaped from gardens or plantations and spreading are naturalised.

A few years later, in 1876, my great-grandfather started West’s cordials and soft drinks business. It’s possible that the first scotch thistle seeds arrived in New Zealand, off the same boat as my great-grandfather.

Poor we thistle struggling to breathe.

Butterflies and bees love this place.

Lake Tarawera is over the flat hill in the distance.