Sunday 16th to Monday 24th September – 6 months in NZ!!

Sunday 16^th September

Time for an easy recovery day.  I went for a much-needed stretch at yoga before getting stuck into the massive pile of washing and topping the weekend off with a tasty roast at the pub in Tuakau.

Monday 17^th September – Bird rescue and a visit to Cornwall Gardens

How cute is this blue penguin?

I was expecting it to be mega-busy at bird rescue, but as it turned out, there were so many volunteers that we finished a little early. I even had time to snap photos of some of the patients and have a try at doing some hand-feeding for pigeons and even a thrush fledgling.

They also rescue domestic birdies - a pretty budgie

I'm not throttling this fledgling, honest I was practicing feeding

 

It was a beautiful day, so the early finish encouraged me to do some touristing and visit Cornwall Park which boasts panoramic views of the City and surrounding countryside from One Tree Hill:

 

You can park in the vicinity and take a walk up to the obelisk, which is in memory of Sir John Logan Campbell and is his final resting place:

 

 

Described as ‘the father of Auckland’ he was one of the first European settlers and, together with William Brown, built the first house in Auckland and opened the first shop. He was a very important figure both in business and public life in Auckland, holding the titles of Mayor, Superintendent of the province and Member of Parliament. He asked that the obelisk be erected here as a permanent record of his admiration for the achievements and character of the great Maori people. It was a lovely spring day with hordes of sheep with lambs grazing the hillsides.

You can just about make out Skycity tower to the left in the city and there's Rangitoto on the right

Tuesday 18^th September

Someone’s been busy nest-building under the front porch (right) – I only noticed this today because of the scruffy bits hanging down. I wonder if someone will be moving in soon?

Wednesday 19^th September – Hunua Kokako recovery group

Strange cup-fungi!

Another day of track maintenance today but my teammate and I were given a very pretty track down by the river to go and look after:

 

Having been nearly a month since my initial visit to Waitawa to count pied shags, today felt like a good opportunity to return for the next count.  My plan is to spend an hour each time and record the total number of birds I see within that time frame so that I can make a direct comparison.  Spending a little more time there and viewing from some different angles I managed to find a total of nine nests and one even in a different tree right by the water. It turned into a stunning evening on the coast.  

Friday 21^st September

A Friday night at Steve & Huihana’s for darts. Nothing new there, I hear you say! But momentous due to the fact that Si got his first ‘Shanghai’ which is a single, double and treble of the same number with three darts and means that you win whatever game is currently in progress, much to the annoyance of whoever was in the lead before that time!

Sunday 23^rd September

It was SIX MONTHS ago to the day that we landed back in Auckland from Thailand!! Scary to think that could be a quarter of our time in NZ gone already. We need to get out and see more and quickly!

To mark the occasion it looks like the mystery nest-builder is making themselves comfortable and it turns out it’s a song thrush (left).

Monday 24^th September

A morning at Bird rescue was followed by an afternoon of admin. Most importantly, I have officially handed in my resignation to Essex Police back home (again!).  My career break was extended until the end of December 2018 after which they required me to return and as I can’t commit to that I had to let them know by the end of this month (i.e Friday).  I know it doesn’t really make a blind bit of difference on a day to day basis. It’s not like I was getting paid by them for not doing any work! But there was a feeling of finality after sending the email off today. Will I ever return to work as a Police Officer/Detective again?  Keep following this blog to find out…!