Wednesday 23rd to Tuesday 29th May – Two months Anniversary and BIG Visa News

Wednesday 23^rd May

I awoke to torrential rain, so today’s tramping has been cancelled due to the weather. I’m going to need some help getting rid of that chocolate cake that I baked.

Thursday 24^th May

A productive day. I managed to do the gym, get a badly needed haircut and sort out pet insurance for Ralph online before doing some blogging.

But we’ve now been in New Zealand (this time) for two months…. Without being able to tell many people about it. I feel I’m getting cabin fever! I would love to talk to some more friends and family about our plans.  The Visa application process is dragging now and we’re both suffering from not having enough to do. The news when Simon last spoke to immigration on Wednesday was good in one respect – if they’ve taken your money then they have probably looked over your application and agreed it in principle so it just needs to go through the process….. Which is estimated to take approximately 58 days at the moment!! I hope that’s not 58 WORKING days?! That would be over 11 weeks…. Or nearly three months! Oh, crikey, it could be that long.  They only took the money for Simon’s application on 22^nd April, just over a month ago.  What if we’re not even half way?! Aaaagh! But there’s nothing we can do but be patient….. and keep waiting.

Whilst we wait, here are some observations about the difference between broadcasting laws in NZ and the UK.  Swearing. It appears that you can say pretty much what you like whenever you like here.  Any time of day you will hear casual swearwords on the radio (I don’t think it’s just the stations we’re listening to?!).  It’s not just the DJs, it’s the advertising too.  Would you hear a car dealership in the UK being described as ‘good bastards’? I think not!  My current favourite is an advert for Cactus Insurance which goes like this: ‘As a tradey (that’s Kiwi for Tradesperson), you know that insurance is a prick! Well, not at cactus… blaa blaa, small print, etc…. So, cover your arse with cactus (man in background sounds in pain and almost audibly says ‘F*%k’)… ‘not literally’ says voice-over man. Makes me smile every time!  Along with the windscreen repair company advert that ends with the singing of a jolly jingle…. ‘show us your craaaaack’!

Saturday 26^th – SPCA training

Nothing exciting unfortunately. I needed to attend a health and safety training session before I can get started on the good stuff. It was quite intensive and there was even a written test at the end! But, after an hour and a half, I was free to go and welcome to return for some more training in my chosen volunteer role in the call centre.

Norfolk Island Pine trees in Auckland Botanic Gardens

As I had driven north and it was such a lovely day, I took the opportunity to return to the Botanic gardens for a walk. I finally managed to identify these unique-looking trees that we had noticed during our travels earlier in the year. They are Norfolk Island Pine trees (left and above).

Monday 28^th May – Si gets his visa!!

This kingfisher likes to greet me at bird rescue every time

I had volunteered for an extra day’s work at the Bird Rescue centre to cover staff shortages.  When I checked my phone at break time and I had a missed call from Simon I knew that it had to be big news. Luckily, it was great news! Simon had finally received his Visa on an email.  It’s just in the form of a letter that he needs to carry with his passport. It doesn’t look much, but it means that he is allowed to stay in New Zealand until November 2020 AND it means that he can finally start work and get PAID!!

We had realised that it was time for another club night at the dive centre this evening (even though we haven’t had the opportunity to be able to go diving with them yet!). It would have been pointless for me to drive all the way home and later fight my way back into the city the same evening. So, instead, I went to the zoo for the afternoon!  Auckland Zoo has a very good reputation for its animal care and attention to providing animals with suitable enclosures with as much enrichment as possible. It reminded me more of a safari park than a zoo as you are invited into the habitats of the animals as much as possible by entering aviaries, for example, through double doorways.   

Sunbathing sealion

A little blue penguin and a dotterel

Auckland Green Gecko

The darkness inside the kiwi enclosure with glowworm replicating lights...

A blurry kiwi - they're fast!

I was especially delighted to be back in the company of my South Island favourites, Kea, and to see some more kiwis up close, even though capturing decent images of them was basically impossible (left)

A non-blurry kiwi (from behind!)

A beautiful Kea

A tui

Are you looking at me??!

Snoozing iguana

An Eastern snake-necked turtle

A Gouldian Finch

I was one of the last customers out of the zoo that night, but it worked out perfectly for me to pick Simon up from Britomart train station, after which we went for a celebratory dinner at Pescado on the Wharf. It may have been a bright day, but I had become chilled to the bone at the zoo, so really enjoyed my warming fish chowder.  

We headed around the corner from there to Global Dive for club night. Tonight’s presentation was by a lady from Wellington underwater club who is a keen cave-diver but is also involved in some marine science monitoring projects.  There may be the possibility of some official fish identification training in the future, so I must keep my beady eyes on their website. More importantly, I made a spontaneous purchase of a $1000 7mm wetsuit for only $300! I got the excellent discount because it was the last example of last year’s stock and I think they had nearly given up finding someone the right shape to fit it! Step forward me! So now I have a wetsuit that should be suitable for year-round diving AND I can use it when I get a call out from Project Jonah.

The day wasn’t over yet. It was time for Si to make calls to his brother and sister to tell them our BIG news!

Tuesday 29^th May – Back to Bird Rescue for more volunteering.

Now that Simon had been able to tell his family our news I was able to start taking some pictures for a collection that Lindi is putting together for her and Andrews’ anniversary without shocking them when they see photographs from us in New Zealand.

They say never work with children or animals. Well, here’s our attempts at trying to get Zambesi the rainbow lorikeet to stay in the sunlight and look at the camera!

 

 

I wasn’t happy enough with my efforts at the bird centre so I drove to some viewpoints on my way home to capture some more images:

 

Wednesday 16th to Tuesday 22nd May – A Unique bird rescue

Wednesday 16^th May – Hunua volunteering

A friendly fantail

We were back at the same location as last week, so I knew I’d be heading out alone again.  It was all going well until right near the end when I came face to face with a wall of mud I needed to scale to get back to the main track. Having stared at the slope for a while to select a route, I made a grab for a sturdy-looking branch. And missed…. Which resulted in me face planting into the soil and sliding backwards down the hill on my front. I had mud caked down both of my forearms and all over my legs.  Thank goodness for a friendly fantail that had been leading the way along the trail:

A stream in the middle of nowhere.....

It was still there with me as I successfully managed to negotiate the climb on the second attempt. I think I was one of the last back to the hut and got some looks from my fellow trampers when they spotted the muddy condition of my clothes. But I convinced them that I was fine!

Thursday 17^th May – Bird Rescue centre

Identification guide for shearwaters...

First thing in the morning, the Managers received a call from the Department of Conservation (DOC) about some Petrels that had crash-landed onto a cruise ship bound for Auckland. In a rainstorm, the birds had got confused that the shimmering lights on the ship was water. They’d been collected and put into boxes by the crew, instead of being helped back off the ship which would have been the best option for them.  Some had died from over-heating in the boxes, but the rest needed feeding and strengthening before release.  They estimated that there were 30-40, but it turned out to be nearly 50… and they weren’t Petrels after all but much larger Buller’s Shearwater and a couple of flesh-footed Shearwaters.

Organised chaos - Lyn weighs a bird whilst Anne records the weight and more syringes of food are prepared

Lyn, tube-feeding one of the shearwaters

We had rearranged the entire garage to create a safe and clean pen to put the birds in after they had been tube fed some nutrients and weighed.

The birds resting up and having a paddle to recover

All three of us Thursday volunteers stayed on late to assist with the feeding and initial assessments.  I hung around the latest, wondering how on earth they were going to sort the logistics for releasing the birds because the experts had advised that it needed to be done at night and on the opposite coastline?! Sadly, we live too far way for me to offer to ‘pop back’ later to assist with the release.

I had planned to go for a walk after work today, but as it was later than usual I just popped into Hillsborough Cemetery which has some cracking views of the coastline:

View of the coastline from Hillsborough Cemetery

Friday 18^th May – I had been wondering how the great shearwater rescue had gone. I needn’t have worried. I read the charity’s Facebook update that confirmed that 37 birds were released last night, whilst others had to be kept in due to injuries they had sustained.

 

Sunday 20^th May – Port Waikato

We didn’t have much planned for the weekend, but I managed to drag Simon out to show him the beach at Port Waikato for a short while. Pretty scenic, eh?

Monday 21^st May – Miranda Shorebird centre

Having missed the best conditions to see the shorebirds last time, today I returned to Miranda at high tide, premium bird-watching time! There were thousands of birds there along with the odd rainbow or two thanks to some circling dark clouds:

This time there were thousands of shorebirds circling above and on the water

Tuesday 22^nd May – Bird rescue

Not even a week after their arrival and all of the shearwaters had been released. A successful story that made it not only onto social media, but also the local news.  Today was far more routine and we finished early which meant that I could go for that coastal walk I’d been planning.

The only native owl found in New Zealand - the morepork (or Ruru in Maori)

I also made a chocolate cake for the first time in many years. I felt that I should make the effort what with it being Willow’s 60^th Birthday celebrations at tramping club tomorrow!