s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

So Sunday, we had dinner plans with Stephanie and Patrick, and that was about it. Dodging rainsqualls, we went to the Chaffers Market (every Sunday in Chaffers Park) for our week’s fruits & veggies. We got other groceries at New World. We wandered over to Amalgamated Video and picked up Tsui Hark’s “Vampire Hunters”. Hoo boy. Mostly bad-but-in-a-good-way, but also rather inexplicable in a lot of places. Then, with the afternoon stretching before us, we decided, “Well, let’s take a walk.”

We decided to head up to the entrance to the Belmont Reserve at the top of Takapu Valley. That part of the Reserve is the Waitangirua Farm, but lambing season is over, so we could go in again. We figured, “We’ll just see what’s up there.”

After a bit of up and down along gravel farm track, we came to a sign that said, “Round Knob”, with an arrow pointing to another track that looked like it was aiming for the top of a nearby hill. “We’ll just see what’s up there,” we said.

Holly will recognize “Surely *that’s* the top…”., and anyone who’s seen the Murderhorn episode of the Simpsons will understand, “No, not that one, that tall one over *there*…”

But after several potential suspects, we made it to the right hill, and from the top, you could see the harbor and the Hutt Valley on one side, and the Porirua Inlet and the Tasman behind it to the other. When you could stand up, that is.

Did I mention that the weather map today had those little “gale force winds” arrows on it ? Y’all know that wind speed increases with altitude, right ?

That clinging-to-the-survey-marker-to-stand-up thing is not hyperbole. Stephen had a time holding himself and the camera relatively still enough to get this photo, and when the wind is shoving delicate-flower Stephen around, you know it’s wind. But since we made it there and back *without* the wind blowing either of us off the narrow part of the track down a steep gully to break a leg, we can think of ourselves as “intrepid”, instead of “idiotic”. W00t !

Friday Halloween was pretty much a non-event. Wah ! I miss Halloween ! Talking to co-workers, it sounds like Halloween as a kids event has only been catching on in the last few years. I reckon it’ll be another few before it catches up as a grown-up event. *sigh*

I have to tell you, though, that Halloween in Spring is weird. Even weirder was the Hamilton Scarecrow festival we saw briefly on the news. Um, like, there are no crows here, guys. And it’s Spring, so it’s not like you’ve got a field of ripe corn to be scaring them away from at the moment anyway, eh ?

Saturday, though, was a hoot. Stephen rang up one of the local alpaca farmers, and was informed that they’d be at the Pauatahanui School Lamb and Calf Day, so we could catch up with them there. Fun ! In addition to the promised lambs and calves (mostly on leashes held by 5 year old blonde girls), and the alpaca, there were a pair of gorgeous roan Clydesdales, pony rides, some colored (meaning shades of gray) sheep, and a pile of piglets (all named after Lord of the Rings characters) that you’d win a prize if you could guess the combined weight of. Oh, and there was a big tub of eels — you pay $0.50, reach in and grab one of the rocks on the bottom, and if you got the “lucky” rock, you got a prize. The school kids all had their pets up for judging — bunnies, birds and fish, the odd chicken & some cats.

There was also freestyle chainsaw sculpture, cow flop bingo, a fire engine, a big-ass tractor, some craft and bake-sale stalls, and, of course, social dancing. I must say that my apetite has been whetted to go to one of the big regional ag fairs now.

So that was Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon was a trip back to the zoo, with the camera this time. Of course different animals were out, but that was cool — we got to feed the giraffes !

Here’s a pic of one of the new African Cape Hunting Dogs — aren’t they neat ? Plus one of the two meercats, and one of the FREAKY plants outside the meercat enclosure. We found out last time that meerkats are really, really vicious when it comes to fighting for social dominance & the reason they only have two is that they’re sisters, so they get along, but if they tried to introduce any new ones, they’d hurt each other fighting. Meerkats are really cute when they mooch for french fries (which they were *not* given, to be sure). The meerkats also apparently used to a habit of spending most of the day *outside* their enclosure — they’d scoot back inside whenever they saw a keeper coming. But they got caught one day & now there’s an extra foot of plexiglass on the top of their wall. Heh.

The Wellington zoo in general has a sort of minimalist approach to enclosures. There were several that, really, if you wanted to, you could have just reached in and poked the occupant. I’m not sure whose restraint is more admirable — the patrons’ or the animals’. On the upside, you get a *really* good view !

Finally, here’s shot of the Australian Frog-mouth. Just a log, Citizen, move along.

Ack. Getting behind in the blogging here, sorry !

Last Monday was Labor Day, and I had it off, so we went for a hike in the Kaitoke Regional Park (at the upper end of the Hutt Valley) with one of our dancerly friends, Melanie. She’s recently moved up from Nelson, and so is also relatively new to the area. She also happens to work for the Department of Conservation, as a weed specialist.

What this means is we had a lovely, leisurely hike at “botanist speed” — we’d hike until I stopped everyone with a “What’s that?“, at which point she’d tell me what it was (latin name, Maori name, common name, edible berries in Summer… etc.). I’d take a photo or two, and Stephen would take notes in a little notebook we’d brought. Way cool ! At some point I hope to put up a web page, if only for my own reference (Okay, you can stop laughing now…).

We discovered that gorse seeds crack open audibly in the sun. As we ate lunch, surrounded by gorse, all around us were these periodic soft pops and cracks. FREAKY. We learned all about “Bushman’s Friend”.

Melanie: Know why it’s called Bushman’s Friend ?
Stephen: Er, it’s edible ?
Me: Shows you where there’s water ?
Stephen: Firewood ?
Melanie: Well, the leaves happen to be soft, fairly strong, and slightly absorbent.
Us: Oh !!

Some pics: