I rewarded my gym session with a splendid brunch at The Anchorage. It's a beautiful spot — who needs to fly to a Pacific Island with this only a 10 minute drive away (or 20 minutes in my case since I managed to get lost 🤣).
Baby white-faced heron is growing and developing the white face. 🐦
Extreme zoom and crop.
In the last couple of weeks, every time we go out and about, to the shops, for example, we see hikers with backpacks and walking poles making their way around the place as they walk Te Araroa Trail:
one of the worlds’ most diverse long distance trails, spanning the length of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Today we met our friend JM at the far end of the Onerahi Shared Path, at the Beach Road Reserve.
Then we biked to Pohe Island, and onto part of the Hātea Loop Shared Path – Huarahi o te Whai until we reached a cafe next to the Hundertwasser building. After a snack we biked back. About 20 km all up.
Hooray for YouTube I had visions of not being able to go on a planned outing today and of having to call a locksmith when my working door key simply could not be pulled from the lock.
There's a simple answer, — hold the cylinder in place: Key Stuck In Lock? Try This Easy Solution!.
We went to the Bream Bay Combined Arts Group exhibition today where I scored this nice image of Mt Manaia for $35. It's done in felt!
A couple of days ago "our" white-faced heron chick looked like this. 🐦
My friend J suggested we visit the Hundertwasser Art Centre — I'd only ever been to the restaurant before.
It was actually very interesting, but my favourite part was the afforested rooftop (I had no idea about the forest).
When your ordinary is someone else's meaningful
I received this email:
Dear Waikawa News,
I am [redacted] from Natural History Museum, London, who studies animal traces through deep time. I found the photos posted on your website (https://waikawanews.nz/2023/03/09/sand-scarab-larva.html) very useful to my scientific research, therefore I am emailing you to seek permission of reuse of the photos. Please kindly advice. And I will properly credit you if the photo is reused in any kind of publication.
The credentials checked out and I saw no scammer benefit so I gave permission and added further photos.
My little post made someone's actual research slightly easier. How gratifying is that!
You never know when your very 'ordinary' blog post may have meaning for someone else.
My friend J and I visited the subtropical Whangārei Quarry Gardens:
In 1944 Hardie Brothers established a stone quarry … Severe flooding in 1974 curtailed the operation and the … land lay fallow for 20 years, used mainly as a rubbish dump, full of abandoned vehicles, concrete slabs, gorse, pampas grass, and other weeds. … In 1997 [a] group of enthusiasts … began clearing the overgrown site.
Our white-faced heron neighbours have finally hatched one or more chicks! These photos are with a 100-400 zoom on a Fuji X-T5, then heavily cropped. 🐦
Today I took a closer look at the World War 1 memorial in downtown Whangārei.
After some fruitless research about the figure, I asked Claude, who replied in part:
The Whangarei District Memorial was erected to honor those from the district who fell in "the Great War" (WWI, 1914-1918), and the female figure would have been chosen to represent one of these commemorative virtues in the classical tradition that was popular for such monuments throughout the British Empire and Western world during that period.
BTW: the raised finger is the index finger. 😆
Eru Kapa-Kingi: The first declaration of Māori sovereignty and why it still matters:
He Whakaputanga was the first pou in the ground making our presence known to the globe. Te Tiriti was the second pou to its side, which then created a waharoa – a doorway welcoming all cultures and people to these lands on the basis of mutual benefit, and the condition of respecting the mana of tangata whenua.
Baby Magpie is becoming more visible. 🐦
I wasn't happy yesterday to find this small paper wasp nest on the inside of the shed door.
Woke at 0100 to a massive thunder, lightning, rain storm. At least it's warm though.
Yesterday afternoon we were battling a northwest wind whose gusts made our house 'growl' and tried to scatter our outdoor furniture around the neighbourhood. 💨
I didn't get down to see this the other day, but well done kids (and adult helpers). The offshore sandmining should not be allowed to go ahead.
A community group opposed to a fast-tracked sand mining proposal in Northland's Bream Bay has set an unofficial world record for the number of people making sandcastles at once. …
the bay was a "closed sand system" so any sand mined from the sea bed would not be replenished from the sea. Instead, the holes dredged in the sea floor would eventually be filled by sand washed from local beaches, fuelling erosion.
Via: Sandcastle world record broken during anti-mining protest.
When I biked to the shop this morning I forgot to tuck the end of my shoelace into the shoe, so sure enough, my lace got caught up in the chain as I was taking off.
Which reminded me to pay another visit to the most excellent Ian's Shoelace Site to check on Hiking / Biking Lacing:
Distributes pressure evenly, plus keeps knots and ends to the inside – away from scrub (hiking) or to the outside – away from chains (biking).
I tried the lacing out on my new Merrels.
Dutch Cities Are Building These Tiny Staircases to Help Cats Exit Their Canals:
Two cities in the Netherlands are mounting tiny staircases on the sides of their canals to help cats escape if they fall in the water.
Between the capital of Amsterdam and a smaller city called Amersfoort, there could be over 500 tiny staircases along the canals by the end of the year.
We enjoyed a few minutes walking by the Whangārei marina, spotting this tree covered in butterflies.
We also saw a Spotted dove 🐦 :
A native of south and south-east Asia, the spotted dove was introduced to New Zealand in the 1920s, when some were released from captivity in Mt Eden, Auckland. …
The spotted dove is a medium-sized, somewhat long-tailed dove with a greyish head, pink-grey underparts, and speckled greyish brown upperparts. Its distinguishing feature is a large white-spotted black half-collar around the back and sides of the neck.
