‘Nother quick note
Posted in Life in NZ, travel on 04/05/2004 09:19 am by TamHad our first earthquake — a 4.something, followed by a handful of 3.something aftershocks. I slept right through them all, but Stephen felt them.
Stephen’s parents were here for the weekend. Saturday, we drank a lot of wine over in the Wairarapa (known for its pinot noir), accompanied by absolutely gorgeous weather. Sunday we trooped around the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, which is a big chunk of bush practically in the middle of Wellington that they’ve surrounded with “predator-proof” fencing. So they are gradually introducing a lot of the rare birds and critters that otherwise are only living on off-shore islands. Saw kaka (like big parrots) and weka (sort of a chunkier, flightless pukeko) and weta (like enormous cave crickets). Very cool ! Part of the sanctuary has clay that looks very similar to ours, and a lot of the same plants that are coming up in our gullies, so we can get an idea where our little patch might theoretically be heading.
04/05/2004 at 11:25 pm
So you have an environment that could end up with weta living there? Scary. I don’t like insects much, and those are Insects with a capital I. You’d need “Roach Trump Towers” to catch them.
04/06/2004 at 7:43 am
I have come across a number of big Wetas while clearing gorse. First one made me jump, as I saw a flash of a big chitinous shells with brown and tan stripes and my brain flashed “centipede!”. Then I calmed down and realized it was just a cute little weta. If three inches long is little.
04/06/2004 at 8:44 am
There’s a point at which bugs get so big they sort of register as “mice”. Weta are like that. It helps that they don’t seem to leap around or scuttle real fast (at least, none of the ones I’ve encountered so far).
04/13/2004 at 9:27 am
… registering as mice is good. Even if they have Too Many Legs.