Oriental Bay

It was just Noreen and I today. Everyone else was away or had other things to do. Oriental Bay can be like the south of France on a fine day. Today was overcast and a bit breezy but it was still pleasant. Noreen is always meeting people she knows, mainly parents she has guided through pregnancy, child-birth and parenthood.

This wee fellow is a kawau. They are a common sight around the shoreline, diving for fish.

Around the waterfront there is a writers' walk, with quotations from various sources. Here is one at the beginning of the southern walkway which starts at the northern end of Oriental Bay.

Sorry I chopped the first line in half. It reads

Everything about it was good; the tugging wind trapped and cornered by buildings, steep short cuts bordered by garden escapes, precipitous gullies where throttling green creepers blanketed the trees beneath. (From The Girls by Barbara Anderson.)

We went up the first part of the walkway. Looking back there are good views of the harbour and city.

Along the way there is a section that was forested with pine. These were removed three or four years ago and natives planted. It still looks bare from a distance but close to the re-vegetation is starting to engulf the pine stumps.

And yet more views back to the city. The big brick building was a monastery but it has been converted into apartments.

The obligatory shot showing the cake tin and Kaukau.

And no walk would be complete without refreshment of some kind. We stopped for coffee and something sticky!

Rata walk

Today’s walk was from Eastbourne to Wainuiomata. Part of the track we covered earlier this year. The track is fairly steep in places and there was a lot of uphill. Most of the time we were in bush like this so not a lot of long range views. Here is one across the valley near Butterfly Creek

The central part of the walk is renowed for several large rata trees. There is an organisation called Project Crimson which exists to conserve and re-establish rata trees. They produced this leaflet describing activities in the Wellington area. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of rata but here is one of us having lunch near one (Mount Hawtrey)!

Near the end of the walk (closer to the Wainiomata Hill summit) got views back over the harbour towards Wellington (that’s Kaukau in the upper centre)and across the end of the Hutt Valley (the mouth of the Hutt River is at bottom right), looking towards Petone.

This is the intrepid group on the same bench as in my post of 22nd July.

From the left - David, Jane, Jude, me, Jan and Nico.

Tulips and Wearable Art

This weekend is the start of the Spring Festival in the Botanic Gardens. A big part is the display of tulips all ready for Tulip Sunday tomorrow. I took a couple of photos on my way to work yesterday. The magnolias are also in full bloom.

To add to the excitement we have an infestation of Dunedin girls. Jenny and four of her friends have come up for the weekend. One of the reasons is to go to the Wearable Arts award show last night. This is an annual extravaganza which has small beginnings in Nelson but has grown to be an international event. The girls got all dolled up for the occasion

and so did Noreen.

As if we didn't have enough excitement, tonight Sam, Nico, Noreen and I are going to watch our local football team in the A-League. All the young people (except Nico) leave tomorrow night so it will be back to being Darby and Joan!

Kaukau

From Wikipaedia -
Mount Kaukau is in Wellington, New Zealand on the western side of Wellington harbour near Johnsonville and Khandallah. The summit is 445 metres above sea level and is the most visible high point in the Wellington landscape further accentuated by Wellington's main television transmitter tower the BCL TV transmitter mast. There is also a compass pedestal placed at the top with points north only. Spectacular views of the city, harbour and the Rimutaka and Tararua Ranges can be experienced from the summit. On a clear day you may be lucky enough to see snow-capped Mt. Tapuaeoenuku in the South Island, whilst northwest is the Porirua Basin and the broad expanse of the Tasman Sea. Mount KauKau is also a field trip for primary schools and provides a great scenery spot for photographing.

Unfortunately the weather was not suitable for panoramic photography today but here are the group in the mist.
I don't know what they mean by "compass pedestal ... with points north only" as there are lines to points south, east and west as well. Anyway - just to prove we had chocolate ...

and here is one I made earlier on a clear summer's day with Andy doing his Merv Hughes impression.

Earlier in the weekend we went to a community art gallery in Maungaraki where Jane was participating in an open day. Afterwards we all went for lunch at a cafe down the road.

Tinakori Hill

Tinakori Hill is part of the town belt above the suburb of Thorndon. It is just north of us. This is the view looking down Glen Road. The bare area was covered in pine trees but a storm a few years ago devastated much of it. The worst affected areas were cleared by helicopter and an extensive reforestation exercise is taking place. The remaining pines will probably go over the next few years as they get to be old and creaky. As an aside "Tinakori" is reputedly derived from the Maori for "no dinner". When the road was being built in the 1850s the predominately Maori road gang were told on the last day they wouldn't be eating until the job was complete!
This view is from the lower slopes and is looking back into the Botanic Garden at Jenny's favourite sculpture!

The weather wasn't the best. Here is a windswept Nico with Glen Road in the middle of the picture. On the way down you get good views of the city. Here Noreen and Jude are on a bench with the harbour and Mount Victoria behind.

And looking out across Port Nicholson, the Thorndon Quays and railway yards. The big oval object (familiarly known as the "cake tin") is the main sports stadium in the Wellington region.

Lastly, we had a bit of a cold snap last week. The mountains to the north are the Tararuas and on a clears winter day are often covered in snow. The visibility here is not brilliant but given that the peaks are 1500 m high and probably 50Km away it's not bad. Incidently this is the view out of my office window. The container wharfs are in the middle distance and the Hutt Valley extends way up to the north at the end of the harbour. As with all these pictures you may need to enlarge them by clicking on them to open in a new window.

Gardens and birds

Spring is here (it officially starts on September 1st) and Noreen has returned with the camera. We'll put up some of her pictures from Europe when she recovers from jet lag but in the meantime I thought I'd take a few around the garden as it it starting to show signs of life. Here are some of the daffodils and violets
and our daphne bush.

I have been planting coprosma up the bank. Here are specimens of two differnt coloured species (yellow-green in the foreground and red in the centre).
We went for a walk down to the Botanic Gardens. Here are Noreen, Nico and Jenny with her new camera taking a photo of me taking a photo ...

We have a fair number of birds in our garden. Tui love to perch up in the tall trees. I shot this against the light and used some fancy processing to get some contrast in the image.

We saw this one in the Botanic Garden and are not sure exactly what it is. Our best guess is a ruru (scroll down to the bottom of that document) or possibly a juvenile New Zealand Falcon (Karearea) but it seems a funny time of year for that. [Update: it appears it is a karearea - see the comments]