Paekakariki Escarpment

The sky was blue, the ocean was blue and there was a gentle breeze. It was a perfect summer day to walk the Paekakariki Escarpment. Alison and I traversed it north to south and I think that was a good direction to walk it. There are steep steps both ways but in the morning we had the sun behind us and the added interest of two swing bridges towards the southern end. It was a popular outing for holiday makers today although we started a bit earlier than most of the walkers. We passed a lot of people heading north as we descended and there were about a dozen people waiting for the bus (train replacement today) at Pukerua Bay. 

Staff Christmas BBQ & Karaoke

My secret Santa gift was the 'perfect man' and several perfectly talented librarians entertained the rest of us - Jemma with her unique (hilarious) version of I Will Survive, Rosemary who was a Wild Thing with her dance moves, and Harley and Emma who impressed everyone with their duets. 

Baby Birds

On the first day of summer - four baby birds in my bougainvillea.

Mr & Mrs Blackbird were kicking up a fuss a minute ago as Winston Cat strolled down the neighbour's driveway. He stopped and stared at me as if I were to blame for the racket.  

Mid Winter 2018

Oops, found this in my drafts folder and I had forgotten to publish it. Better late than never. Some cheery things from mid-winter:

A few of the surprising number & variety of flowers in the garden

Decorating the Wellington Cable Car for the Rainbow Storytelling school holiday event.

The rainbow lights in the tunnels were gorgeous.

The Kapiti College sign on Sunday made me laugh.

Planets visible in the clear night sky from my house. True they look like bright stars with the naked eye, although Mars has an orange tinge. Skyview app helpfully identifies them all. From left (west) to right (east): Mercury (disappears first), Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars.

Armistice Day 2018

One hundred years after the end of World War One I attended the Armistice Day commemoration in Te Awamutu with my mother. She belongs to the local RSA so we marched behind the official party to ANZAC Green and watched the ceremony to remember the fallen soldiers and mark the moment a hundred years ago that the guns fell silent. Due to our time zone New Zealand was the first country in the world to mark the event at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. I think Te Awamutu was the first place in the world to mark the event because everyone was ready and the MC said we may as well get started and the bells tolled a few minutes early! 

1) Armistice Day service Te Awamutu 2018. Iraq & Afghanistan vets lay a wreath.

2) Peace Memento given to Waiuku school children. My grandmother received this one.

3) Gilbert Heald 1882-1915. My great grandfather's brother who was killed at Gallipoli. 

4) Crosses outside Feilding Fire Station in 2018 commemorating local volunteer firemen who died in World War One. Gilbert Heald's cross is front row, second from left.  

Spring Holiday

I've been delving deeply into family history research so I've neglected the blog for a while. But through my research I recently met some extended family members while on a 'meet the family' holiday with my mother. People I phoned out of the blue have been very welcoming and helpful.   

                                 Mum, Ian McCaul & Edna McCaul at Huirangi

      Ben & Fanny Hall's house (my great, great                The house at Huirangi in 2018
              grandparents) built about 1880

   

Jim, Alice, John, Gordon, Annie, Bill,       Alice's son Lyndsay Shuker, Florice's daughter 

             Tom & Florice McGowan. c.1930          Lois Knight. Same doorstep about 90 years later

           The McGowan family homestead                          With a new roof in 2018

Great Weather for Ducks ... and Pukekos

It is finally light enough for me to cycle to and from work again. Although it's still winter I've had three enjoyable rides in the past week. Today it was damp as I rode along the track. There weren't many people about but the pukeko were out and about in force. I counted 30 pukeko around the expressway wetland area. Some pukeko are skittish but the odd one, like a little fellow today, just stroll across the path in front of my bike. 

Thai Football Boys Cave Rescue

First they survived 10 days deep inside a cave in Thailand, then the world waited and wondered if they would make it out alive, and finally after a mammoth rescue operation all twelve boys and their coach are out and safe. 

Shelving Stuff Ups

It seems to be a case of all brawn and no brain. The people responsible for putting the shelves back into place after the carpet laying at the library have become worse and worse at the job the further they progress through the library. The teen book shelves were a complete muddle this morning. The shelving units weren't in the correct position, the individual shelves weren't in the correct slots, shelves weren't aligned and the books weren't even in alphabetical order. How hard is A,B,C? Why would you place books upside down and back to front? I'm not sure if the workers are stupid, lazy, careless or all three. 

Failed to get Fired

Darn it, I tried but failed to get fired today.  The job I most dislike at the library is doing the banking. There was a significant discrepancy between to the totals, Betty was away and neither Nisa nor I could figure out where the mistake was. We had to call the council accountant over to help. He is new and unfamiliar with the library banking system but he was very nice about it and helped us solve the problem. I asked if he would fire me from the banking but he just laughed (but I meant it, I really did). The frustrating thing is that it took Nisa & I two hours to do the banking, time we could have spent on other things e.g. sorting out the mess the movers left of the shelves after the re-carpeting. Between the banking and the wonky, muddled shelves it's a rather frustrating week. 

Cable Car Wellington

It was a cold (-2°C) and frosty morning and I shivered on the platform waiting for the train to Wellington. However it was a  beautiful sunny day to take a train ride down the coast and a cable car ride up to Kelburn. It was also a work day so the cable car ride had a purpose - to help plan the Beyond the Page event for the July school holidays. It was great to do something different today, to meet some librarians from Wellington City Libraries and Wellington was looking its best. 

Prime Minister's Baby Born Today

Congratulations to our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and her partner, Clarke Gayford, whose baby girl was born today. A little winter solstice arrival.

New Carpet in the Library

Wooden framework was constructed to hold the metal lighting supports in place when the shelving below was removed to recarpet part of the fiction section. 

Fortunately the wooden framework held when part of the lighting support buckled - although some manpower was also required to stop it collapsing completely! 

Russia Uses the World Cup to Score Publicity Points | The Daily Show

This made me laugh today. 

Tragedy in Guatemala

Volcan de Fuego lived up to its name on Sunday and unleashed a deadly pyroclastic flow that destroyed homes and lives. I watched smaller eruptions many times from Antigua and the smoking mountain appeared to be a backdrop to everyday life.  However when I was in San Miguel Duenas I did find the rumbling sounds disconcerting and after Rigoberto described his experiences as a 9 year old when Yepocapa was all but buried in ash I realised that Fuego has a much more menacing side as well. My thoughts are with Guatemala this week. 💓

                                  Volcan de Fuego from the terrace. Antigua 2017.

                                             Volcan de Fuego 3 June 2018

Kapiti Island

Best birthday present to myself ever - an overnight trip to Kapiti Island. I have a whole new appreciation and understanding of the bush clad island I see every day now that I have climbed it and walked among the trees. The bird life is amazing and we saw several rare and endangered birds such as hihi, saddleback/kieke, takahe and kokako.

Alison and I were very lucky to see the kokako. Sightings are infrequent but one flew across the path in front of us and landed on a low branch nearby. There were lots of kereru in the small trees near our cabin and they even graze on the grass in front of the cabins. Two old takahe (one is blind) live around the houses at the north end where we stayed and we saw them several times. The kaka are food thieves but one landed on my shoulder and sat there for a about a minute even though I wasn't holding any food. One had grabbed a biscuit from someone nearby and then a bunch of them turned up. A little robin hopped around us when we sat on the path and scratched at the leaf litter with a stick. It was so cute and so close. A weka pecked my thumb but I deserved that. I lured it over to me with a shiny chocolate wrapper. It pecked the wrapper a couple of times and when I wouldn't let go of the wrapper it pecked my thumb.  I still didn't let go of the wrapper!

I'm so pleased we stayed overnight and not just for the day. The weather was great, we met some lovely people (14 visitors stayed overnight and Wayne was a very friendly and informative host) and there was a great variety of birdlife.  We heard but didn't see kiwi, they are rather elusive at the moment, but the night walk in the bush was still interesting. It was a beautiful, still and starry evening, so quiet that we could hear weta in the bush. 

 

 

Kitchen Repaint

What a mission! Thank goodness I divided the kitchen repaint into three projects - 1) ceiling, 2) door & window frames, 3) kitchen cabinets. Now it's finished I'm pleased I chose to do the work myself rather than pay thousands of $$$ for new cabinets. Half way through sanding the inside of the kitchen cabinets I had second thoughts because it was a horrid, hot, messy and tiring job. Fortunately the cabinets are solid, good quality wood so after thorough preparation they look brand new in an original, retro, 1960s kind of way. 

 

Nasty Weather

What happened to summer? Yesterday it was 19°C and I enjoyed a pleasant cycle ride to and from work in very calm conditions.  Today it was 9.5°C at 2pm although  the Metservice said it 'felt like' 5°C due to the cold southerly. That blasting southerly caught my umbrella, turned it inside out and tried to carry it away. I managed to keep hold of it but the umbrella is completely wrecked and a spoke dug a hole in my thumb. 

Today's high temperature was at 2am this morning!

 

Zak likes MTB

A great video of Zak on his bike at Whareroa Farm on Good Friday. 

 

Easter Egg Hunt

Save Our Auckland Flights

I went to the rally at Paraparaumu Airport today to protest Air New Zealand cutting flights to the Kapiti Coast and to show support for Air Chathams to fill the void. I am usually a great supporter/customer of Air New Zealand but felt very disappointed in the way they dealt with the suspension of the Kapiti-Auckland flights. Not only did they make the announcement just five days after a big open day at the airport attended by over 1000 people but they only gave the community four weeks notice. The airport is only five minutes away from my house so even if I have to pay a bit more for an airfare it still works out cheaper and/or more convenient than traveling to Wellington Airport. 
Boo Air NZ; Go Air Chathams.

 

Park to Path Fun Walk

The sun was shining this morning and Zak had agreed to walk 6km with Nisa, Rayna and I. The Park to Path event was organised by the Kapiti Coast District Council and there were even participant numbers containing electronic tags so everyone's time could be recorded. The four of us started off at a walk but only three of us walked the whole way.  Within a few metres of the start line Zak strode off ahead off us and then I saw him running up the only hill on the course and disappearing off into the distance. About 25 minutes later he passed us as he returned along the trail to the finish line. Zak took only 33 mins to complete the 6k while Nisa, Rayna and I strolled over the finish line in 1h5m. He was very pleased when the times were posted and he saw that he was a top ten finisher.