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. 🐦

These baby birds are so hard to see they're at huge risk of being trampled, run over or grabbed by a dog.

Back in early November 2022 I almost stepped on a Poaka Pied Stilt nest not far from the blue pole that marks where the North Track off Reay Mackay Grove exits onto the beach. Luckily I saw it just in time.

The nest with 5 speckled eggs was just a scrape in the ground with a few bits of driftwood nearby.

The parent Stilts were fierce defenders of the nest, divebombing anyone who came anywhere near. They’re pretty scary, flying straight for you and only swerving at the very last moment!

Then at the start of December the nest was abandoned, one egg remaining. There was no sign of the parent birds nearby. We feared the worst.

That's when Corne Ferreira came along while volunteers were planting spinifex across the front of the Miratana block. He spent a while taking photos and when we chatted with him discovered he'd been watching 3 baby Pied Stilts in the wet sand near the bend of the river. He generously agreed to share his photos with us.

So precious! So hard to see!

These babies won’t be able to fly until the end of December:

Both adults incubate the 3-4 eggs, which hatch after c.25 days. The chicks leave the nest when dry, and can fly when 28-32 days old. The young are olive-brown to brown and downy with dark blotches on their backs, and white underneath. When hatched they are brooded by their parents but find their own food.

Will they survive the busiest time of the year on Waikawa Beach?

Originally posted on the now defunct Waikawa News, 06 December 2022. Amended slightly.

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. 😒