First week down

The first week back went by very quickly. This whole term is going to go pretty quick. I lose 2 senior classes in 3 weeks time, and it's only another 8 weeks until the summer holidays.

This weekend Zealandia (formerly the Karori Wildlife sanctuary) was free to locals. They have recently opened a brand spanking new, all bells & whistles visitors centre, and hiked the entry fee up to $28 accordingly! This was a great opportunity to go along for free. It had been quite widely advertised, & because the weather wasn't too bad, it seemed like half of Wellington had the same idea. We arrived at quite a good time before the crowds were too huge. When we left they were queueing halfway down the street to get in!

We had a very nice day out. Once you headed off into the valley you weren't quite so aware of the crowds. We probably didn't see as much wildlife as you usually would when it was a bit quieter, but we were still happy. The tuatara had come out to play, & that was one of the highlights for us.

We also saw Hihi and Kaka hanging out around the feeding stations.

It was a really nice day, and good to get out into the fresh air and get some exercise. It was pretty poor that since mid January we had been living 5 minutes drive from the sanctuary, and had never visited. I guess we are a bit spoilt having Otari-Wiltons bush right on our doorstep. The terrain is very similar, just not quite the same abundance of wildlife.

On Saturday night we went to the Lions/Taranaki rugby game at the Cake-Tin. It was the last home game of the regular season, and the last chance to use the 'buy one ticket get one free' offer from our entertainment book. It was a very good match with Wellington totally dominating. The final score was 49-15. The match was marred by an injury to Piri Weepu early in the second half. Straight away we knew it was serious, as the angle his ankle was hanging off his leg was all wrong! Sure enough, it turned out he had a broken leg. Such a shame for him as he has been playing so well, and would have been a certainty for the end of season tour... Speaking of the tour, I'm excited about SBW! I'm looking forward to seeing what he can offer in the black jersey...

Today the weather was pretty awful, our cherry blossom is almost at its peak & I have no idea how the blossom is managing to cling on in the blustery wet conditions! Our wisteria is also very close to coming out. It climbs all over the pergola so should look spectacular when it is fully out. The seeds we have planted are doing very well on our sunny windowsill. In fact as you can see in the pic below, some of them are starting to get a bit big for the initial medium I planted them in. Late afternoon there was a break in he weather so I took the opportunity to shift some into bigger pots. In a week or two some of them will be ready for planting out into the garden.

Second week of the Holidays

On the second Tuesday of the holidays my mum and nana flew down from Hamilton. It was lovely having them to stay and they were very easy house guests. Over the last couple of months the birds have (finally!) discovered the birdbath, so it was nice that nana could see them using it as it was a house-warming gift from her.We did lots of work in the garden throughout the week, with mum & nana spending hours weeding. They have cleared all the weeds & moss from the patio and it is now looking great.
We have also been busy right at the bottom of our garden. It was a bit neglected but we have weeded the bed down there and planted some more soft fruit, to go with the few strawberry plants and 2 raspberry canes that were already there. We put in some more strawberries, 2 more raspberries, 2 blueberry, a loganberry and a boysenberry. Will has also built a cage around the bed to keep the birds off when they start to fruit. Nana was quite taken with our ipad and enjoyed playing with the virtual pond & a bubble game...

I like the pic below of 3 different generations of our family.

I managed to get a few gym sessions in during the second week, including using up 3 personal training sessions that I got free when I joined up way back in January. One day mum & nana went shopping at the shopping centre across from the gym while I did my workout. On the way home we stopped in at the Botanic Gardens. There were some very nice waterlilies out in Begonia house.

There were also some very cute ducklings which mother duck was very protective of. They must keep her busy as we counted 10!

Mum & nana flew home on Saturday afternoon. It really was lovely having them stay, & we appreciated all the help around the house and section. In other garden news, we discovered that we have a lovely little patch of bluebells. We haven't been in the house for a full year yet, so it is very exciting seeing what pops up in the garden, especially at this time of the year. We also weeded the area under the lemon and grapefruit trees, as it was starting to get a bit over-run. It was a big job, & we now intend to put down some weed matting so we don't have to do it again. The vege garden is starting to get sorted. We have planted some broccoli, cauliflower,cabbage and lettuce seedlings which seem to be going OK. The peas, carrots, radishes & rocket are also sprouting. I love this time of the year!