This is super interesting (Waikawa Beach has a terrible erosion problem in one particular spot) — Cyclone Gabrielle: Parts of East Coast lost 10 metres of shoreline (my emphasis):

"Commercially, they've been operating these very high resolution satellites for about the last 20 years, but it's probably only been over the last four or five years that the cost has come down, and the accessibility got to the point where you can order an image on your phone... or you can actually pay a little bit more and task a satellite to be over your beach at a particular time and take an image."

He said it cost academic buyers about $20 per square kilometre. The higher the resolution, the higher the cost, but it was a gamechanger for scientific research, he said.

I don't usually go in for yearly roundup posts but there were a lot of Special Moments in 2023. I did a bunch of stuff on behalf of the community, spent a lot of time taking photos of and learning about birds, bought some new gear that has proved useful, did a bit of travel, some people stuff, a few firsts, and Sasha the 16.5 year old dog passed in March.

Community work

• Set up Waikawa News (hosted at Micro.Blog) — a development from previous sites with a different focus
• wrote 227 Waikawa News posts
• received a $100 grant from Horowhenua District Council towards Waikawa News costs
• helped plant spinifex on the beach
• communicated with Horowhenua District Council about local beach issues; gave a 5 minute presentation before a meeting where decisions about vehicle access were made
• did a lot of research on the topic of vehicles on beaches, especially Waikawa Beach and especially a petition from some in the community to run a vehicle track to the beach in an ecologically sensitive area near where we live
• did a lot of research and communicated with a small group of like-minded folks about troublesome motorbikes on the beach; met with a Horowhenua District Councillor about the problem
• gave feedback and suggestions to Horowhenua District Council about some of their Comms (the Meetings and Agendas web page) and was gratified to see changes implemented
• watched many Horowhenua District Council meetings and workshops online or in person

Bought (or sold)

• Artisan Stand Mixer
• Electrolux Ergorapido Hand Vacuum
• Deejo Astro tattooed pocketknife
• EV: MG4 Essence 64
• EVNex charger for EV
• Nikon Monarch 7 8x42 binoculars
• Fujifilm X-T5 camera
• sold Ōtaki rental property in May 2023

Pets and wildlife

• All year: Willow the dog visited frequently and even stayed overnight or I just took her for walks as her mums dealt with various severe health issues
• January: Saw an Australasian Bittern for myself
• February: 1 year since Oshi the dog died
• March: Glee the Japanese Quail died
• March: Sasha the dog had her last day
• June: saw Snow Leopards at Wellington Zoo
• November: saw an unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach: a Glossy Ibis
• November: spotted a new bird at Waikawa Beach: a black-fronted dotterel
• December: kept an eye on various baby birds on the beach: Pied Stilts and Variable Oystercatchers

Miscellaneous

• worked out a solstice based calendar because 01 January is such an arbitrary date for a new year — 21 June 2022 (at 2113) was Day 0
• worked through a really useful course course: Mastering the Fujifilm Autofocus System
• regular brunches with a good friend
• 15 February 2023: a 6.1 quake got me out of the house
• 17 April 2023: Start of 4 weeks plus really sick, not Covid, probably flu
• 12 May 2023: first almost-frost of the season (the frosts kept coming till mid-November)
• gave a presentation about MarsEdit for Micro Camp on 21 May 2023
• 11 June 2023: went for a midwinter dip in the sea
• 16 June 2023: ran Starry Time, a 30 minute time on the beach with whoever turned up looking and talking about the night sky; other Starry Time events later in the year were cancelled for weather
• June 2023 made a 2300 Km car trip to Cape Reinga and return, visiting friends along the way
• June 2023: started regular massages with Natalie Waddell, a superb massage therapist
• 18 July 2023: saw the Starlink satellite train of maybe 30 or 50 satellites — an amazing sight, though I know the problems these and other satellites are creating for astronomy and humans in general
• July 2023: watched FIFA Women’s World Cup NZL (1) v Nor (0) on TV — a first for me to watch sport
• August 2023: a week long Samoa holiday with friends
• snorkeled at Palolo Deep Marine Reserve in Samoa
• called in at a wonderful cafe in Apia called Rivaiv — I had a fabulous teriyaki chicken bowl
• October 2023: visited New Plymouth overnight with Deb for our 30th anniversary
• 02 November 2023: arrived home from errands to find a HUGE controlled burn-off almost next door where the forestry block had been felled
• received a very generous Amazon gift voucher from a friend
• looked after Deb who had a medical emergency resulting in 7 days in hospital in Palmerston North. (She's fine now.)
• December: heard from my cousin in England after a few years of no replies to my emails — I'd thought he must have died
• tried cooking assorted new and some older recipes
• tried assorted delicious green, white and yellow teas
• wrote 914 posts on https://miraz.me
• all year: loved participating in the Micro.Blog community, reading about other people's lives, looking at numerous gorgeous photos, exchanging comments, building friendships with people who live far away

I wonder what 2024 will bring?

In my dream I was leaving a part of Waikawa Beach that had nightclubs, shops, restaurants, thinking: How weird I've lived here nearly 8 years and never found this area before.

The map above clarifies how tiny Waikawa Beach is. It also has zero shops, cafes or other commerce. 🤣

Whew, I suppose it's only right that it takes me many hours over several days to write my monthly Waikawa Beach Newsletter. I guess the longer it takes, the easier it is for folks to read in just a few minutes. Maybe …

Folks interested in Waikawa Beach and its birds … take a look at this morning's Waikawa News blog post: Wrybills vs Dotterels. 🐦

Wrybills and two kinds of Dotterels are tiny, cute, and starting to show up for the season.

This is a super busy week with a lot of things going on — new car will need a charger, bank stuff, insurance stuff. Meanwhile a gigantic local issue about how (and if) vehicles can access Waikawa Beach will be debated tomorrow and I'll do a wee speech at Council in the public participation session.

These days I watch the tide charts. There's a dramatic difference at Waikawa Beach between mid-lunar month (low variation) and full (super) moon (high variation).

In August 2022 I spotted a Kererū at Waikawa Beach for the first time. This year there are two! I only managed a photo of one. 🐦

Sinalei Resort in Samoa. Bit different from Waikawa Beach eh! Also, about 25C. 🇼🇸

Waikawa Beach where I live is at about 40° south of the Equator. We get a great view of the Southern Cross, but never see Ursa Major.

Samoa however is about 14° south of the Equator. On checking Stellarium today I find I should be able to see both constellations! ✨ 🇼🇸

Dammit, there are two items on the agenda for today’s meeting of the Horowhenua District Council that particularly interest me. They’re about Waikawa Beach. The live stream though lasted all of 4 seconds. I’ve reported it and hope they get the stream back online…

Time to head home now — a 12 hour drive. We’ll visit friends along the way and have a couple of overnight stops.

Rain forecast for the rest of our trip.

Waikawa Beach has nice dark skies so tomorrow night I'm running a community event I've called Starry Time: a casual hour of looking at stars with the naked eye or binoculars. I hope we can see Mars, Venus, Large & Small Clouds of Magellan, Southern Cross, Milky Way, Arcturus, Canopus, Sirius. 🤩

Those into Tiny Homes may enjoy this writeup and photos of a tiny home right beside the main entrance to Waikawa Beach: Designer’s Two-Bedroom Tiny Is Ultra Creative, Hides a Cool Sliding Ladder.

The original owners sold, and the property it stands on may soon be lost to the sea (hence: wheels).

Did a speedtest on my 4G WiFi broadband connection after billbennettnz wrote about speeds.

Happy with our rural residential speed (I can see the cell tower from here) here at Waikawa Beach, Horowhenua.

@billbennettnz

Kimbolton is a 90 minute drive northish from Waikawa Beach. At their Sculpture Festival they knew how to entertain, kids especially. Lots of food stalls, but also a pen of Dorset Downs sheep, a Mystery Wool Dig, a jump-in trampoline, a boat race pond and lots of other good rural stuff.

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.

Since I just looked this up for myself.

Year	March equinox		June solstice		September equinox		December solstice
2022	21 March	04:33	21 June	21:13	23 September	13:03	22 December	10:48
2023	21 March	10:24	22 June	02:57	23 September	18:50	22 December	16:27
2024	20 March	16:06	21 June	08:50	23 September	00:43	21 December	22:20
2025	20 March	22:01	21 June	14:42	23 September	06:19	22 December	04:03
2026	21 March	03:45	21 June	20:24	23 September	12:05	22 December	09:50
2027	21 March	09:24	22 June	02:10	23 September	18:01	22 December	15:42

Source: Seasons: Dates of Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter. Note: times are for Paraparaumu, not far from Waikawa Beach.

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 survive 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.