Sunday 31st May 2015.

Hello friends and family

sitting out the storm

As I drove out the gate at 6:10am last Thursday, the first of the day’s tourists had already arrived. It was very dark and I explained to them that the lighthouse would be operating until 7:30am so they left, driving in front of me, to the conditions, at 25kph all the way to the main road! Serves me right. I did make the flight in Christchurch with 10 minutes to spare, and arrived in Tauranga to spend a day with the family.

great cloud formations at sunset.

I borrowed my daughter’s car on Saturday morning and headed over to Hamilton to the WReNNZ conference in the DOC building downtown. As usual, the conference was well worth attending and I always come away with ideas to improve the way we do things. I stayed the night and went to the conference dinner – the weather in the Waikato delivered 200mm of rain overnight, so it was a wise choice.

Cooling off after braving the waves to get home.

I headed back to Tauranga and enjoyed dinner with the family, and flew back to Christchurch on Monday afternoon. When I left the terminal the cold was quite shocking and I was grateful for the heater on the 4 hour drive home.

The waves scoured over a meter of sand off the beaches.

Chris and Hiltrun had been here, working hard developing the habitat and caring for our one bird in care so thank you both for letting me get away for a few days.

Enjoying the sun after it returned.

I spent the week preparing for our 2 days of working in the reserves. This means gathering supplies, preparing hooks and tree circles and delivering stuff here and there. With only 4mm of rain during this last storm event, it is still too dry to plant new trees.  I have also stepped up the trapping regime for winter when the predators are hungry. 

Giant waves from the huge low pressure off the coast.

Friday brought our first frost and so I have put the Pohutukawa and the lemon trees into the hothouse. I have enjoyed some Feijoas from my tree in the garden here, I will check the Hampden trees in the weekend.

We now have 2 penguins in care.

Have a great week!