Saturday saw us take up an opportunity to visit Mana Island off the coast from Porirua. The island was designated a scientific reserve in 1987 after a long history of colonisation and farming. Introduced pests and large mammals have been removed and in subsequent years over half a million trees have been planted and a […]
Sinclair Head seals
Sunday seemed like a good day to go for a hike. We’ve got a holiday coming up soon with lots of walking planned so we’ve been wanting to get out a bit more and have Alayna get used to longer treks. With a decent looking weather forecast we set our sights on the New Zealand […]
There he blows!
For the past few days a whale has been loitering around Wellington Harbour. Relatively quickly the whale was identified as a southern right whale, a species last seen in these parts 8 years ago. There is a myth that back in European settlement days the southern right whale population was such that their noise at […]
Rainy day Zealandia
It has been cool and wet today so what better time to head into Zealandia? Yeah, perhaps not the ideal visiting conditions but we still had a good time. The wildlife doesn’t get the option to avoid the rain and we saw plenty of birds going about their business. The forest was often a scene […]
Re:Lux
We’ve now visited the Lux festival three times this week. On Wednesday evening there was some rain about so I headed into the city to try and get some photos of lights and reflections. Unfortunately (for me anyway) the rain was light and didn’t hang around so there wasn’t much in the way of pools […]
Lux is back
A beautiful and calm winters evening last Friday saw the return of the Wellington Lux festival for 2015. I’d read about a free workshop for creating fairies in a jar so while Keryn went and signed us up Alayna and I took a quick trip to Moore Wilsons to buy a suitable jar. The workshop […]
The sky moves at night
Last weekend the signs were looking promising for a show of the Aurora Australis so I was able to get out for a spot of stargazing. Arriving at the Red Rocks Reserve I was quickly out onto the beach and then as usual I walked up the hill to get an elevated viewpoint. It was […]
Swimming and Ballet
Weekends at the moment are organised around activities for Alayna. On Saturday we attend swimming classes in Whitby, we’ve tried a few different swimming classes now and while they’ve all been good the Ally Todd swim school is probably our favourite. Alayna still loves the water and her favourite parts are jumping into and being […]
Zoo portraits
Keryn and I are now zoo crew members with Alayna getting to visit for free until she gets to her 3rd birthday. On a cool and showery Sunday we visited the zoo and checked out (and were checked out by) the occupants. With every visit Alayna is getting more and more engaged and this time […]
Alayna visits Wellington Zoo
Last week Alayna had a couple of days at home as she wasn’t really well enough for daycare. We both looked after her for a day and on my sick day we went to the zoo. This wasn’t perhaps the most obvious choice as it was a cold and wet winter’s day but I had […]
Something learned regarding Jupiter
There is currently a near conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter visible in the evening sky. I found out today via the Aotearoa Astrophotography facebook group that the four largest moons of Jupiter are visible via photography with a telephoto lens. So naturally I had to try take a photo when I got home. […]
The Strait Feronia
Recently the Wellington ferry company Bluebridge announced that they had purchased a new ferry and it was sailing its way from Sweden to arrive on the 1st June. There was an associated photo competition to capture the best photo of the Strait Feronia’s Wellington arrival so I figured we’d get out and see if we […]