Taste of Kiwi

My husband took this photo while snorkelling in Lahaina, Hawaii.

To see more photos of animals visit Camera Critters

Tweet This Post

A pukeko is a swamp hen, part of the rail family. While some of our native birds have become extinct because of introduced predators such as rats, cats and stoats, the pukeko has adapted easily and is very common. They happily live in town and city reserves where there are swamps and ponds, living on vegetation, insects and frogs.

I’ve always thought of pukekos as stupid birds. When we lived on the farm I used to watch them flying into power lines and fences. They do fly, but are not strong flyers and usually only travel short distances. They also make a high-pitch shriek – it’s not a particularly musical sound. The pukeko chicks are very weird looking and cute at the same time with big feet – watch the ad below to see for yourself. It’s an ad for an electricity wholesaler and has won heaps of ad awards. It always makes me smile.

What is the strangest bird you’ve ever seen? Do you like bird watching?

Tweet This Post

This week I have photos of two different critters taken during my recent holiday in Phuket.

I think this is a type of Kingfisher. He sat very still while we kayaked around him and took lots of photos.

We hired a tuk-tuk to go the a restaurant and watch the sunset. This was one of the elephants we saw on the way there. He’s bedded down for the night with his dinner at his feet.

To visit other Camera Critters go here.

Tweet This Post

Our local council runs a program called Women on the Move. Each month they organize a day trip to help women get out in the great outdoors, exercise and have some fun. I took a day off writing today and joined their day trip to Tiritiri Matangi.

Tiritiri Matangi means “looking to the wind”. It’s an island sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf, not far from Auckland. Not that long ago Tiritiri was farmed and the original forest cut down to make way for grassland. The Department of Conservation took over the island and hundreds of volunteers replanted native trees to reforest the island. All pests such as rats, cats, mice and stoats were eradicated. Once this was done some of New Zealand’s rarer birds were introduced to the pest-free sanctuary.

Before we arrived at the island by ferry we were asked to check our shoes and remove mud etc. We also had to check our bags and remove any rats or mice or other pests we found. Luckily I was all safe on that score!

The weather has been horrid for the last couple of weeks but today it was a gorgeous morning. We walked through the bush, stopping regularly to check out the birds we saw.

Today we saw:
Kakariki (a green parakeet)
North Island robin
Kokako (very rare)
Wood pigeon
Tui
Bellbirds
Stitchbirds
Whitehead
Saddlebacks
Takahe (thought extinct and rediscovered in 1948)
Fantails
Pukeko

They have kiwis on the island, although they’re nocturnal so we didn’t see any. They also have tuatara but the winter sun wasn’t enough to entice them out of their burrows.

It started raining just as we headed to the lighthouse for lunch. There’s a takahe called Greg. He’s 16 years old and is very bossy and cheeky. He hovered under our tables and tried to grab our sandwiches if we held them within his reach. He wandered inside the coffee shop, much to the amusement of the group of school kids and tried his luck in there before one of the ladies shooed him outside.

After lunch we explored a little more, checking out the birds at the feeders before we headed down to the wharf to catch the ferry back to inner Auckland. I really enjoyed my day on Tiritiri.

This is what a normal takahe looks like. They normally graze on grass not sandwiches stolen from lunch boxes.

Tweet This Post

I’m busy with edits at the moment. As luck would have it, they’ve all arrived at once, which means I’m going to be a little quiet for the next few days.

Tomorrow is the start of my spotlight week at Long and Short Reviews. Here’s the link. I’m giving away a few prizes, so come along and check it out.

On Friday a young female orca washed up on the West Coast. She was loaded on a trailer and taken across Auckland, with a police escort, for release from Takapuna beach on the East Coast. Boat traffic seemed to confuse the orca, and DOC staff are asking the public to ring them in the case of a sighting. Here’s the full story here.

Did you have a fun weekend?

Tweet This Post

A kakapo is a New Zealand flightless parrot. It’s an endangered species because of its vulnerability to predators and of course, the inroads made by man into the parrots’ natural habitat. Until this week there were only 86 living kakapo but after a bumper breeding season five chicks have hatched on Codfish Island (a sanctuary for the birds). Kakapo need special conditions to breed and plentiful food, which means that not every year is great for breeding. The last good year was 2005. Here’s the story here plus a photo of a kakapo.

In a small promo, I included the kakapo in my very first book, Aislyn. The baddies were conducting a scavenger hunt and one of the items they needed to collect was a rare kakapo egg.

In writing news I wrote the last words on my first draft of another Middlemarch story. It’s tentatively called Cat Burglar. I’m going to let it sit for a couple of weeks and start yet another Middlemarch tale – this time it’s Leticia’s story, a character from Stray Cat Strut. I’m really thrilled with my progress, because after stopping the Sven challenge and taking almost a week off writing, I’ve still managed to write 50,000 words.

Tomorrow Christina Phillips is my guest blogger and we’re giving away a prize. I hope you’ll pop back to say hello.

Tweet This Post

When we first moved to our current house the section was bare, and the soil consisted mostly of clay. After throwing around some ideas we decided to design a potager garden.

A potager is French and it’s a raised bed garden, normally for vegetables and herbs. Hubby built three box squares out of timber and filled them with good quality soil. We made a decorative path between them so it’s easy to plant, water and harvest and not long ago, Mr. Munro planted a hedge of shelter trees because it seems to be windy where we live.

Mr. Munro spends hours out in the garden and periodically, I have to go out an inspect his latest improvements and crops. This year we’ve had fresh potatoes, lettuce, zucchini, red onions, leeks, green beans, basil, radishes, beetroot and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. It’s so handy just wandering out to the garden to pick whatever vegetables we’ve decided to have for dinner.

Here are some photos of Mr. Munro’s garden:

I have to confess I’m a bit tired of zucchini but I’m really enjoying the green beans and can’t wait for the tomatoes to ripen so I can make fresh tomato sauce to have with pasta. Do you grow your own vegetables? What do you grow? And if you don’t have a garden, what is your favorite vegetable to eat?

Tweet This Post

The weta – it’s a large and primitive insect, native to New Zealand. The reason I chose to write about wetas today is so more people know what they are. When I used a weta reference in my book Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters my editor didn’t know what I was talking about and I had to rewrite slightly to describe a weta as a prehistoric cricket-like insect.

There are five broad groups of weta:

1. Tree weta
2. Ground weta
3. Cave weta
4. Giant weta
5. Tusked weta

Wetas are nocturnal and live in a variety of habitats including grassland, scrub land, forests and caves. They live under stones and in rotten logs or in pre-formed burrows in trees.

They are mainly herbivores in the wild but are known to eat other insects. They can bite but are not poisonous. Species of weta are still being discovered and several are endangered. In the wild they were traditionally eaten by the tuatara (a prehistoric reptile native to NZ) but these days many are destroyed by rats, cats and dogs and of course, humans encroaching on their habitat.

The weta sheds its exoskeleton when moulting.

At 18 months the male weta selects a female and they spend time together in the male’s territory. (Romance in the insect world!)

At around two years old the female will lay 100 – 300 eggs. The parents die before the weta eggs hatch 3 – 5 months later.

The Department of Conservation in New Zealand is currently involved in weta breeding programs and translocation to safe sites such as protected islands like Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. The weta respond well to a captive breeding program.

The following photo is of a giant weta.

I’ve never seen a giant weta but have personal experience with both tree and cave wetas. We often find tree wetas in our garden and will return them to live in peace. They can nip and look creepy but I don’t mind them. My experience with cave wetas is a bit more spooky. When I was a kid my girlfriend lived on a farm with limestone caves. It was a favorite pastime to visit the caves and wander through them with a candle and maybe a torch to search for stalactites, stalagmites and glow worms. When I think about our cave visits now I can see how dangerous it was but for us it was an adventure – an hour or two of wandering through pristine caves. One day we discovered a new tunnel and were all set to charge into it to explore. I happened to shine the torch over the ceiling and it was covered with huge cave wetas! Really covered. I think I let out a screech and dropped the torch and we all decided to explore another part of the cave. I also took to checking my gumboots carefully and shaking vigorously before I put my feet in them. This lasted for a few weeks until the initial horror passed. I’ve never been bitten by a weta but I’m always careful not to get too close either. I can appreciate them from a distance.

How are you with insects? Do you like them or hate them with a passion? Do you have any insect stories to tell? What do you think of New Zealand’s weta?

Tweet This Post

Mt Ruapehu, one of the volcanoes in the middle of the North Island erupted with no warning last night. Two climbers were taken to hospital, ski lodges and the ski field have closed. The railroad and roads have also closed. It’s bad timing since school holidays started this week.

The volcano has been fairly quiet over recent years, apart from the big lahar that came down a few months ago when the ice wall of the crater lake broke, releasing all the water. That one was forecast but the scientific instruments were strangely quiet during this eruption. This eruption produced small lahars. I’m fascinated by volcanoes and one day will find a way to use a volcano setting. Yes, I will.

I’ve been editing this week and yesterday I typed in all the amendments I’d made on my manuscript. Actually yesterday was momentous since I also decided that maybe I would enter the Brava contest. I have a story idea but haven’t written a word yet. Yes, I’m cutting it fine but nothing like a deadline to get me moving. Guess what I’ll be doing today.

Tweet This Post

I love animals and I’m a sucker for any story relating to animals. I watched a news story with interest today about residents of Capetown in South Africa running a raging war against baboons. The protected baboons are adept at opening cars and house windows. They are breaking into both and creating chaos, especially when they hit the “motherlode” – the fridge. Here’s the full story here

This reminded me of my own baboon experience, which happened during our overland trip through Africa. We were staying at a game park in Nigeria. The place was run down since they didn’t get many tourists but we stayed in these nifty huts, which was a change from camping. They also had a river with hot pools in it. After lots of cold showers and cold water washes, hot water was good! Anyway, they also had this small camp store that sold chocolate. Mars bars in particular. We hadn’t seen chocolate for weeks so just about everyone indulged. This camp had baboons and we had to make sure we locked our huts and didn’t leave any food about for them to steal. Between the camp store and our huts there was a dirt road. The baboons patrolled that road and let me tell you they could spot a Mars bar wrapper at one hundred paces! A few of our group were mugged by the troop of baboons and had to make a run for it, leaving their chocolate behind. I wasn’t game to purchase chocolate after that and everyone kept a wary eye out for those baboons. Not a creature you want to fool around with, that’s for sure.

I’m running a new contest in conjunction with Sierra Dafoe over at my website. Check out my contest page for details.

Tweet This Post