I find it interesting that the Google Alert I have in place for Waikawa Beach found me an item about Kai Iwi beach. No mention of Waikawa in the source.

Back on 05 December 2021 I thought I’d try Publii for my Waikawa Beach blog. It works adequately, but I really truly miss being able to work with Posts via MarsEdit. Plus there are blog features Micro.Blog is just so much better at. I’m planning a move…

Whew. First I did research that took at least a week. Then I spent at least another week trying to write a big article for my Waikawa Beach blog. Finally I have a draft. Read-through tomorrow when I’m fresh, then I’ll publish. It’s not usually this hard.

The Kiwi barbie: Craig from Horowhenua District Council cooks saussies on a BBQ in a trailer, under an umbrella, in the rain, for the opening of the new Waikawa Beach ‘amenity’ block (aka toilets) yesterday.

The newly completed toilet block at Waikawa Beach (replacing a 50- to 60- year old facility) also has fresh new signage — in Te Reo Māori and English as all our local Council’s signs are these days. Very pleasing!

Folks, you might like to see Take care for the Pied Stilt chicks about the baby birds currently trying to surive on our beach. Includes fantastic photos by Corne Ferreira, a visitor I was chatting to the other day. Location: Waikawa Beach, Horowhenua, Aotearoa New Zealand. 🐦

Thanks to the global Light pollution map I now know the sky where I live is almost as dark as it can get, at Class 2. On a clear night I can see the Clouds of Magellan with my naked eye. ⭐️

Wellington, OTOH, comes in at Class 6: bad.

The first time I’ve heard the Pīpīwharauroa | Shining cuckoo at Waikawa Beach. I’ve never seen one. It has the most annoying call:

Voice: the main call is a loud upwardly-slurred whistle repeated several times; the sequence usually ends with a downwardly-slurred whistle.

A Day In The Life Photo Challenge 2022. Taken at 08:40 at Waikawa Beach, Horowhenua, Aotearoa. Flowering Ti Kouka (Cabbage tree).

First time ever I’ve seen a Kererū at Waikawa Beach. They do live 4 Km away (as the bird flies) but have never been down here before as far as I know. 🐦

Length: 50 cm; Weight: 630 g

It only takes 3 and a half hours to drive home, and that includes a detour to a track. I should visit this area more often: stunning scenery, amazing short (and long) walks.

About 2 hours after high tide, with an open sea swell of 5 metres, and westerly gales so strong they just about knocked me off my feet while I took this photo: the Waikawa Beach estuary, full. And yes, events like this are eroding the dunes quite rapidly.

The pre-dawn sky is delightful. Look east to see Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. On the 24th the Moon will join in. Check Stellarium Web Online Star Map for IDs. Screenshot below from 24 April 2022 at Waikawa Beach (with Māori names added).

I spent an age today making a Big List of Waikawa Beach Birds. Counting only live birds, not those washed up on the beach, there are over 50! 🐦

These Rock pigeons, although common everywhere, are actually not that easy to find at Waikawa Beach. 🐦 I first spotted them a few months ago, but it was only yesterday things came together for a quick photo of one. It flew away immediately. 😒

I was never really very fond of gulls, but I’m coming to quite like the ones at Waikawa Beach. Tarapunga, Red-billed gull. 🐦

Waikawa Beach at 9 am on a cool, clear, sunny, still morning. Paradise.

The public toilets at Waikawa Beach were built around 50 or 60 years ago. They’re now in a state of decay. Today builders started demolishing the men’s side. The women’s side will become two accessible unisex toilets, a family room and a store room. Here the roof comes off.

On 03 March 2022 we had turf laid at the rental property we own. It must be watered daily. That water comes from a roughly 9,000 litre rainwater tank that also feeds the toilet in the house. Otherwise the house uses a metered town water supply.

A week on and the underground tank under the front lawn ran dry! It’s been hot and dry, with not even a skerrick of rain to help refill the tank or water the grass.

The town supply is supposed to refill the tank when the level drops too low, but what we didn’t know was the refill is a trickle that carries about as much water as a badly leaking kitchen tap! The plumber we consulted advised it could take a few days before there was enough water to flush the toilet.

All of that information was painstakingly unearthed as it wasn’t available in the original house purchase documents (we knew the tank existed and that it supplied the toilet, but that was all).

Today our local water supply guy, Reggie, who lives at Waikawa Beach, came with 10,000 litres in his tanker and filled the tank for us. It took about 8,500 litres. I wonder if that’ll last more than a week?

I couldn’t even see how to access the tank under its concrete inspection cover. Reggie had me lever a claw hammer under one of two pins until the edge of the lid was high enough for him to get his fingers under it and lift it out. Thank goodness he knew how things like that work!

We are due for a little rain this week. I hope it’s enough to water the grass enough and also to top up the tank.

This turf is turning out to be very expensive, with the cost of laying it and then our daily trips to hand water the tiny area not covered by the two sprinklers on a timer, and now 9,000 litres of water delivered.

We live at Waikawa Beach. Travel to the two closest centres, Ōtaki and Levin, means using State Highway 1. There is no alternative.

That stretch of road is notorious: in 2021 the road was closed 5 times, 26 times there were delays, and 8 people died, from a total 37 crashes.

Thanks to the 36 people who joined in on my little Daylight Poll the other day.

It was fun to learn that my day length in Waikawa Beach, Aotearoa New Zealand was longest at 15 hours 24 minutes, while the shortest was @svenseebeck in Oulu Finland, at 6 hours 32 minutes.

Waikawa Beach For Sale: 58 Manga Pirau Street. 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 176 m2 floor, 985 m2 Land.

Quick poll of Micro.Bloggers, with my answers:

• where are you? (Waikawa Beach, Aotearoa New Zealand)
• date? 28 January 2022
• sunrise? 06:22
• sunset? 20:44
• day length? 15 hours 24 minutes