Second anniversary

They say that time flies when you're having fun but I can't believe that two years have gone since I moved here. Maybe time rockets by when you are living your dream! I am so lucky to be living here and learning about our unique environment - I wish I had started when I first arrived in New Zealand as our beautiful ngahere (native bush) holds so much treasure that it will take many decades to see it all.

Track trimming at Dancing Star - looking one way...

...and the other

Still, it's better late than never and I get so much enjoyment from spending time in the bush. It's so easy to only notice the big things - views, large trees, gullies and streams - but the small stuff really grabs my fancy. Take these Akatea, Metrosideros diffusa, white climbing rata flowers, for example. When the buds first open, they look like upside-down ballerinas with legs going in all directions...

...but give them a bit longer and the 'legs' straighten up and point to the sun.

Or how about the pattern on this huhu beetle, Prionoplus reticularis?

Check out the stinging hairs of our native scrub nettle, Urtica incisa - best to avoid all of the native nettles, great that they have distinctive leaves to warn you!

Next time you are walking through some native bush, take a look at a square metre of ground; count the different species that you see, note the shapes of leaves and the colours and textures. Can you see any blossoms or fruit? There's a new website called NatureWatch (http://naturewatch.org.nz) where you can explore what has been seen around your area, learn about native species and, if you want, record your own observations. There's a fantastic service offered where you can put up a photo of anything and ask for it to be identified - what a neat way to learn.

http://naturewatch.org.nz

Changeable weather with hot days followed by hail, cool morning temperatures and quite a lot of rain have made it challenging for my vege gardening; some seeds are up but I think I'll need some sort of covering (plastic/glass) to get much of a harvest. Here's what it looked like this afternoon...

Summertime on Stewart Island

Happy New Year! I had a lovely holiday break which finished perfectly with a visit from family. Having 3 pairs of hands (and lots of knowledge!!) is so much easier than doing everything myself - I waste half the time trying to think how to do it, and the rest of the time trying to carry it out!

New Year's Day on the island was the wettest 24 hours for a long time with around 100mm rain. I had localised flooding around my property but it was minor compared to some other places; this is the top end of Hicks Road...



There's a road under there somewhere!

A major slip on Horseshoe Bay Road took half the road with it and the bank will need stabilising first so fixing it will be a major exercise. You realise how isolated you are on this island when events like this call for heavy machinery, engineering expertise and a load of building material. It's probably one of the busier sections of road and although it's possible to keep it one lane in the short term it's going to be a pain if it's not fixed soonish.

A few days later we were having the hottest day on record! It was a stunningly sunny day and it was great to have experts on hand to chainsaw the two trees close to the garage. After the hard slog we walked to the Bay for very welcome ice blocks and ginger beer.

Good to get these taller trees away from the garage

Halfmoon Bay on a scorching 33.1°C day

We had a good time on Ulva Island, the only South Island open bird sanctuary, did some sightseeing and took the Real Journeys Village and Bays guided bus tour - three nights just wasn't long enough to get round everywhere but plans are afoot to tramp the Northwest Circuit here in 2015.

Bathing Beach

A young fledgling toutouwai (robin) on Ulva Island

A great display of flowering rata

Close up of flowering rata

Two new additions have appeared on my section; firstly a TipTop ice-cream cabinet that was in one of the clearings - it's now been carried out of the bush and I'll use it as a seed cabinet. Secondly, I've built a large compost heap so now have a mini-Mt Taranaki close to home!

Anyone for an ice-cream?

Halfway through building a compost heap

I needed to call on the expert this week when the waterpump didn't turn off despite all taps being off. Rex has fitted a new one way valve section to the intake side and (touch wood) everything is going sweetly again. I've learned a lot about water pumps in the process too. The builders turned up at the same time to replace the roof nails with the proper roofing screws so shouldn't have a repeat of the roof leak I had last year, luckily before the ceiling was painted.

My waterpump

Jarrod's crew replacing the roofing nails with roofing screws

Never a dull moment on the island; what a great place to live!

Christmas pics

I've taken a break from gardening to take more photos - enjoy...

The only clouds in the sky

Putting dried rimu tops in the bottom of the raised bed to assist
with drainage

Manuka flower

Close up of manuka flower - such perfection in small things :)

Thelymitra native orchid - but a white one!

Thelymitra - I think it's cyanea but now I'm wondering!!!

Close up with sandfly

Merry Christmas

It's a beautiful morning on the island and Santa found a way down my chimney to leave some goodies that I'll unwrap later. It's my first Christmas Day on the island as last year I was in Christchurch. A few pohutukawa trees have been introduced to Stewart Island but our native Christmas tree is the rata; where possums have been controlled the rata make spectacular displays up in the canopy. It's hard to capture the impact of a bright patch of red in a photo but you get the idea!

Flowering rata

Another good show provided by our amazing ngahere (native bush) is the indeterminate number of colours, shades and textures, both from afar...

Lime-green ponga in amongst the kotukutuku (native fuchsia)

Coastal temperate rain forest

and close up...

It's great to be on holiday for the next two weeks but I'm not sure if it's going to be long enough to get through a lengthy To Do list. First up is the revamp of the vege garden area with a raised bed and clearing the weeds and reeds so that I can assemble the 'shade house' - well, it's actually a pet enclosure but I'm going to cover the netting with micro-climate cloth which lets the rain through whilst keeping some of the heat in. It's heavy enough not to be blown away and the netting will keep the possums out. On the subject of possums, my Goodnature trap hasn't caught any yet but the one at Dancing Star did last week.

23 December: A big heap of weeds, not really a vege garden at all!

Christmas Eve afternoon - a raised bed in the making

I've been doing a bit of orchid-spotting; Aotearoa has many native orchids - check out this website if you are interested http://www.nativeorchids.co.nz/ or buy their excellent colour field guide for only $20 incl p/h. Here's one of the 36 taxa of Pterostylis, the principal genus of the greenhoods - I still have to work out which one it is!

The above clump was on the road bank just down from my driveway. Another common one on my property is Thelymitra cyanea, or striped sun orchid (I think!!!). The flowers are fairly shy to open and most of the time the buds are closed tight. I've just found a white one open, will put that in the next blog!

Countdown to holidays!

I'm on target with my Christmas mail, I've scrubcut the long grass and got a heap more firewood stacked in the woodshed so won't feel guilty at all for putting my feet up from Friday lunchtime onwards! I have 2½ weeks off work and looking forward to slow days, sunny weather and catching up on reading and blogging. Of course, this all depends on whether the end of the world is happening on Friday - it will be such a bummer if I finish work and don't get to enjoy my hols :).

I'm miles behind with my blog; I've been taking lots of photos but haven't had the time to wrap some words around them. I'll have to get back to more regular blogging so that I don't forget what I've been up to.

The DOC rec team have the job of emptying the toilets from the huts, the Lee Bay road end and some staff houses. They pump the sludge into a tank that is then helicoptered to the sewage pump station where it is manoeuvred into place and emptied. They had two helicopters working this year and I stopped to watch them - it's certainly not a glamorous job but is very essential and I thank you for it.

We've had some welcome sunshine lately after a Spring of fast-moving fronts bringing cold temperatures and a fair amount of rain. Last Sunday it was fine and breezy and I'm wondering if the ancient Mayans were spying on us from their spaceship...

The UFOs are coming!

I'm doing some volunteer work cleaning rat traps at the Dancing Star Foundation (DSF) - it's about an hour's walk from here and I get to see some quirky sights like these...

An ornate gate cemented in place but with no fence either side

A loo-vely sight at Grim's place

The DSF property stretches between Horseshoe and Lee Bays and has a 2km predator-restricted fence with an array of rat traps both inside and outside the fence. There is a bit of clambering down the cliffs, easy to do when it's fine and sunny but I might think twice in strong winds. I was rewarded yesterday with being metres away from 3 shags as they watched me wire-brush and oil the traps around their perching place.



And another reward when I climb back up is this view of the clear waters of Horseshoe Bay...

Liquid Summer sunshine!

The start of another month and the first day of Summer. Whilst most of Aotearoa has been baking under sunny skies, the bottom of the South Island has had a succession of fronts bringing strong winds, rain and the occasional hail storm. We've had enough sunshine between the showers to warm my house up and with the double-glazing keeping the heat in, I've had no need to light my fire despite cool night temperatures outside. Great for the environment and my wood stocks, getting double-glazing was certainly a good investment for me.

I've taken advantage of the inclement weather by curling up inside with the book, Existence, by David Brin. It was recommended to me and what a great, thought-provoking read it is. Published in the US on 1 June 2012, the story is based on our Earth in 2050 when contact is made with 'aliens'. Cleverly drawing parallels with the present issues of climate change, overpopulation, Big Brother and human nature, Brin weaves a fascinating tale of what happens when life outside our solar system makes contact. Is it science fiction - or is it non-fiction for the future!!

I bought my copy from http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Existence-David-Brin/9780765303615

My new bed arrived a couple of weeks ago and a friend help me get it from the ferry wharf and bring it home. I had to move the linen cupboard and chest of drawers to swap beds and I had my new bed installed and made an hour later.

My new mattress and base from Brownies Mattress Direct, Invercargill

The view from the wharf

I was surprised to find the new bed shorter than the 1900mm standard - not quite sure how it lost 8 or 9cm but it's only just over 1800mm long. Just as well I'm a shortie! It's lovely and firm and doesn't sag in the middle and I'm sleeping well. Brownies offer free freight to the island which is a huge bonus.

What a pretty tree/shrub Makomako/Wineberry (Aristotelia serrata) is, especially at this time of year when prolific flowers of varying hues smother the branches. Check out the details on the wonderful T.E.R.R.A.I.N (Taranaki Educational Resource: Research, Analysis and Information Network) website http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/table-1/wineberry-makomako.html

Makomako flowers

The new flowers are almost colourless, then deepen to pinks and reds as they age. Black/red berries ripen on the female trees in late summer and, in the olden days, were used as a drink (squeezed and strained to remove the bitter pips) by Māori or made into jam, jelly and wine by the settlers. It is deciduous on Stewart Island and there are several documented uses of its leaves, bark and wood.

Kiwi came visiting in the moonlight last Monday night; a female called three times within 30 minutes and then I heard them 'growling' close to the house. I saw one on the drive and another moving through the long grass by the deck - my smile was very broad as I went to bed that night! I'd spotted the weka family (Mum, Dad and just one chick) earlier that day, great to know that my rat trapping around the section is giving the birds a better chance of survival - along with the lizards and weta.

The weather surprised me on Thursday afternoon when I checked my rat lines over at Deep Bay. We'd had heavy showers all morning but the sun came out for a couple of hours as I checked my traps in the dry - just one heavy hailstorm as I walked home. Thank you Weather Gods!!

Check out the white caps past the sheltered waters of Deep Bay