tiritiri matangi

we went to tiritiri matangi today.

  it’s our local wildlife sanctuary island

these people pushed their kids round in a wheel barrow all day

here’s the ranger telling us the rules

we had a guide to show us around.  here’s what we got up to and some of what we saw

this is a silver fern

here’s our native robin

here’s a big fat native pigeon

here’s our guide.  she often visits Tilehurst near Reading

here are some bell birds

and some tuis

and of course greg the tarkahe

he’s a nearly extinct bird who terrorises visitors by trying to steal their sandwiches

 

and he’s huge !

with a pecky beak

 

then it was time to leave

when we got back we afternoon tea and we took esther to a friend’s house for a sleep over in a tent in their garden.  i’m not sure how much sleeping there will be

jane’s parents kindly agreed to babysit for us so jane and i went to long bay for a stroll

thanks to the cyclone passing through there was still plenty of debris about, but mostly organic

 

then we had a meal in the long bay restaurant which is the place we went to on christmas day

it was dark by the time we’d finished

oh, and we also skyped jane sister first thing in the morning so that was funny her having her parents on the other side of the world rather than jane

here’s a bird fight