Wild Wednesday 100: New Zealand Blue Mushroom

We were quite lucky with the weather today - the forecast rain didn't start in earnest until about 4pm, by which time we'd had a lovely drive from Lake Hawea (thanks to blippers rainie and OldTimer for putting me right about the pronunciation!) to Fox Glacier Village, over the impressive Haast Pass. We've now driven about 30km on from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef Glacier Village where we've stopped for the night; the rain started lashing down for that last few kilometres (but at least there's no snow, which we gather we're missing back in Blighty; we've seen on the news that Newcastle Airport has suspended flights owing to the snow so we hope they're back on by next Monday when we're due to fly in!).
 
The road to the Fox Glacier viewing point advises against driving there in a campervan so we gave that a miss. We did however drive to Lake Matheson - otherwise known as "Mirror Lake" - for a 90-minute walk round it. Unfortunately the lake wasn't as still as we'd have liked, owing to some light wind and to the rain, and the mountain backdrop was almost invisible in the cloud and mist (we should have been able to see Mount Tasman and Mount Cook along with their reflections) - but I've done my best in today's extra.

Today's main blip is a rather pretty Blue Mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri), of which we saw three specimens during our walk. It's cap is about 1.5cm in diameter. It's found in New Zealand and India; I like it's Maori name which is "werewere-kokato" as its colour is the same as the blue wattle of the kokato bird. I've tagged it for Wild Wednesday's centenary, hosted by Cailleach who I believe likes fungi! Seemingly no-one knows whether or not it's poisonous (I decided not to try it!) although it has been investigated to see if its blue colouring might be manufactured as a food dye. It was one of six native fungi featured in a set of fungal stamps issued in New Zealand in 2002.