Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Apologies for the late posting. I have been quite busy and we have had broad band problems at home.

I have made a couple of changes to the blog. Firstly SiteMeter has been added to give an idea of how many people are browsing here and where they come from. Secondly I have enabled feeds, so you can get notification of when new material has been posted without going directly to the site. Lastly I’ve restricted the display to one post per page. Hopefully this will improve load times particularly for those on low capacity lines.

Right, down to business. I have become very attached to my moustache. So much so that I have decided to name him. So please say hello to Mowbray (known to his friends as Melton).
There is even a street in Wellington named after him

Expect to see some changes in his appearance over the next few weeks while I work out which style I prefer (and what I am allowed to get away with!)

The weekend weather was hot and sunny. We danced on Saturday morning over at Brooklyn Fair, another traditional engagement. Nico has some pictures.

While at the fair I bought a pittosporum seedling (if you look closely you can see Sam playing silly buggers behind the door!) ...

and planted it up on the bank. (Behind it are a ngaio and a pink flowering manuka).

Also up the bank, this young cabbage tree seems to be thriving. With luck it will get to 15 metres tall in about 50 years time.

As Nico has mentioned, on Sunday morning Jane took part in a run and swim event over in Eastbourne. Noreen was supposed to participate but got called into delivery suite (an occupational hazard!). Nico has made a rather good short documentary of the event which I am trying to persuade him to post on YouTube. Zoe organised the event and here are the proud mother and daughter.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the Karori Sanctuary fenceline. There are some excellent views (on a clear day). This is looking north across the city and harbour, up the Hutt valley to the Tararuas.

One of the features of the walk is the Karori Wind Turbine. I think this was the first wind generation in New Zealand when it was installed in 1993. Here is the group in the information area shelter. The turbine is fairly small these days and a much larger installation is planned for Makara .

Finally, on the way down we had a great view of a very elegant Kereru. These are lovely birds that we don't see too much of around Wellington. They are relatively large and heavy and sometimes get slightly tipsy on the fruit they eat.

Matiu/Somes Island

Wellington Harbour was discovered about 1,000 years ago by the semi-legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe. He had two daughters and a son. The son was Tara and he settled in the area naming the harbour Te Whanganui a Tara (the great harbour of Tara).
There are two islands in the Te Whanganui – Matiu and Makoro named after the daughters. When Europeans arrived they bestowed their own names on these features. Port Nicholson, Somes and Ward respectively. The old names are making something of a renaissance and we are in the hybrid stage of referring to where we went today as Matiu/Somes.

In the past the island has been a Maori settlement, heavily fortified pa site; in European times a quarantine station for humans and animals and during both world wars it was used as an internment camp. Nowadays it is administered by DoC as a reserve

The journey by ferry takes 20 minutes from the centre of Wellington.
It has been a glorious weekend and today was sunny and warm. This is the view looking north to Petone and the Western Hutt hills

and south west across to Kaukau and Wellington

Lunch was taken amidst second world war gun emplacements

which (along with most of the southern part of the island) has been taken over by gulls for nesting

(sorry this is slightly out of focus)

We did see lots of kakariki, some robins, several skinks and geckoes, some weta in their hotel, but sadly no tuatara apart from Andy who saw one.

I don’t have any photos of these but here is an ancient fossil attempting to be young and trendy

On our return to Wellington some of us went to the annual model train exhibition. There were some impressive layouts including this Hornby O gauge 3 rail setup

and a lovely New Zealand bush railway in N or something fairly small

Rudolf Steiner and Cannon Point

It sounds like the introduction to a joke but I can’t think of a good punch line. Comments welcomed!
One of the first engagements in the Wellington Morris calendar (which starts in spring) is an appearance at the annual fund raising fair held by the local Rudolf Steiner school. It is in a magnificent setting on the Western Hutt hills and we always get an enthusiastic audience there.
After lunch we tackled Cannon Point. It’s a fairly stiff grunt up to the trig from where there are magnificent views down the Hutt river (south) to Wellington harbour and the city beyond.

The tall fellow in the group is a German called Ingmar who has been coming along to Morris.
There is also a view across the top of the Hutt valley to Mount Climie which we climbed a few weeks ago.

The return from the top is through some lovely bush and into a valley which contains the Birchville dam and lake

The stream joins the Akatarawa river shortly before its confluence with the Hutt River.

Access to the track is by a typical Kiwi swing bridge.

Then it was back to Dave and Jane’s for a barbecue and some of Jane’s home grown broccoli

Christmas preparations

Six weeks to Christmas and it's time to make the cake and pudding. Jenny spent today being a domestic goddess.
Nico is back from his South Island sojourn

and helped with the important job of stirring the mixture (you are allowed a wish when you do this!).

Noreen is getting used to her new laptop and enjoys playing the corporate businesswoman.

I spent most of today sanding and re-oiling the garden furniture. I am taking part in Movember although for me it involves removing bits of my beard and seeing what sort of moustache suits me. Keep watching for further developments.

And finally, Sam got home tonight. He drove down from Auckland and went straight to Lyall Bay for a surf before coming home for tea and to watch television.

Island Bay

Today was a grey day in Wellington but we went for a walk starting and finishing in Island Bay. We did a loop consisting of the southern ends of the City to Sea and Southern Walkways.
The bay is named after Tapu te Ranga Island.It gives it’s name to a suburb that was originally settled by Italian migrant fishermen.

The walk climbs up from the coast and goes through residential areas and park land. There is a Maori powhenua on the ridge depicting Te Rauparaha (often referred to as the Maori Napoleon and most famous for his Kamate haka which is used by the All Blacks) and his nephew Te Rangiheata.

The two walkways run roughly parallel and we cut between the two across the Berhampore Golf course. This shot looks back across the course and up to the ridge that we had descended from.

Looking north there were views of the mist shrouded city through a gap in the trees.Summer is looming now and the universities are disgorging their students back into the loving arms of their families. Jenny arrived on Thursday and has been catching up on domestic tasks.

Sam arrives sometime soon so expect pictures of him then.