The Island

It was a warm sunny day, so we decided to take the ferry over to Matiu/Somes island for a picnic and see if we could spot any wildlife there. As a predator-free island, it is home to tuatara, weta and also has a thriving population of kakariki. We climbed up to the gun emplacements at the top of the island and organised our picnic there.

Afterwards we went for a walk around the island tracks, spotting some kakariki, but they didn't land so I was unable to snap them. No sign of any tuatara, and the weta are nocturnal, so I had to make do with seagulls and skinks instead.

The following week, I was back on the island, this time with work colleagues: my employer gives us one day per year to take as volunteer leave, and we had decided to use this to help out the DoC work on the island. There are no permanent staff on the island - they rely entirely on volunteer groups and individuals to get everything done, with one island ranger, Jo, who organises the volunteers. On arrival, we were given two tasks for the morning: transporting a load of gravel from the dock up to the Visitor Centre, where it was to be used for a new building project, and sorting the chopped-down branches from some recent tree clearing into sizes suitable for logs or woodchippings, removing shoots and twigs so that they would go into the machine. It was again a hot day, and by the time lunchtime came round we were ready for a rest and sit in the shade.

After lunch, we had a gentler time of it, clearing overhanging and encroaching foliage from the Western track. As we went along, our DoC organiser pointed out a tuatara on the slopes down from the track. Unfortunately I'd forgotten the ABC rule (Always Bring Camera) so was unable to get a picture of it. As we were clearing the pathway, Jo was also checking the bait boxes for signs of mice and rats, to ensure the island stays pest-free. Inside one box, she found a baby Giant Cook Strait weta - about an inch long. In the next box, there was a fully-grown individual of the same species. These grow to about 2 inches long, and are big, fat creatures. I held this one in my hand, and you can feel the weight of them - an unusual experience when holding an insect! She was carefully replaced in the box.

Whilst we were working, Andy had commented that there were a bunch of people in the water swimming on the far coast - we thought no more of it. But when we came to another gap in the trees, we saw that they weren't people, but dolphins...and a lot of them! There were around 100 dolphins in the pod, swimming into Wellington Harbour.

We finished up our work and waited around for the ferry back to Queen's Wharf. Whilst aboard the ferry, the captain announced that he was going to take a detour into Oriental Bay, because this was where the dolphins now were. Fortunately one of our gang had a proper camera with him and was able to get some decent shots of the dolphins, whilst my cameraphone pictures were a bit rubbish.

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

photo: Angus Veitch

Blackcaps Twenty20

Nicola’s father and sisters have been staying with us for the last week. We’ve been busy working during the day, and have left them pretty much to their own devices with nothing but a map and a guidebook and some helpful suggestions (like sending them on the Ships’n’Chips tour to Matiu/Somes Island, where they saw a tuatara, amongst other wildlife).

In the evenings we involved them in our normal routine, going to pub quiz, where the combined Kirkup/Farley/Cumming team, together with another special guest from the UK, came second. I’d like to report that yours truly, with the remains of our usual team, came in ahead of them, but all we could manage was a dismal fifth. We also went dancing, and afterwards visited another restaurant on our list of places to try in Wellington, Le Canard. It may not surprise you to know that this is a French restaurant, and that there are quite a few duck dishes on the menu. It was lovely, although it tended towards the French custom of sluggishness in sending the food out, so we were there quite late (by our standards! ;-))

But on Friday night, our holiday started! No more work for a week! And first on the menu was the first Twenty20 match against the visiting South Africans, played at Wellington’s famous Cake Tin stadium (also known as The Westpac stadium). The family had made their way there ahead of us, and bought tickets which we collected at the box office. Nicola and I had headed home after work to change into more appropriate cricket-watching clothing (including an extra layer – it can get quite chilly in the Tin once the sun sets).

The Proteas were put into bat first, and were then dealt some punishing bowling. Wickets fell in a steady stream and none of their batsmen really got going apart from Ontong who scored 3 sixes in one over, and managed 32 off 17 balls before being caught and bowled by Southee.

And then it was time for the Blackcaps to bat. They managed to stay on top of the over rate at the beginning, and with some top batting from Guptill (who was not out on 78 at the end) who held the innings together, and a couple of spectacular sixes – one of which he almost got out of the stadium! The Blackcaps finished with four balls to spare, having required 6 off the last over (a position from which the Wellington Firebirds could easily lose).

We’d parked in town so after a short walk back we were able to drive home for an early night, as we had an early start the next morning.

Wellington Nights

After a hard day’s wandering around Matiu/Somes Island, we headed into Wellington’s heady nightlife district, Cuba Street, for dinner at Matterhorn. This is one of the best restaurants in Wellington, and also boasts a bar that is rated as 16^th best in the world.

We turned up at around 730pm, and had cocktails in the bar – vodka martinis and cosmopolitans – before having dinner in the restaurant. Check out the menu options here – we had the steak, venison, snapper and soufflé. Each. No, not really!

There wasn’t anything chocolatey enough for me on the pudding menu, so Pa & I shared some cheese instead.

Island Life

Yesterday, Ma & Pa Wilsher arrived in Wellington for a short 4-night visit. Last night we dined simply chez moi, and today we went out on a pre-arranged tour called “Ships & Chips”. This involved turning up at the Wellington Museum at 11am, to be given a guided tour of the museum by an entertaining and enthusiastic member of the staff. The Wellington Museum is spread over three floors, and you could spend a day or longer going round all the exhibits. He gave us an edited highlights tour, concentrating on three very important parts of the museum, and giving us a lot of info on Maori legends at the same time. The tour also included magic, where we sat down and watched a presentation of the Maori legend of the creation of New Zealand and Wellington Harbour. Turned out it was all done with smoke and mirrors (the presentation, not the creation of New Zealand and Wellington Harbour).

At around midday the tour finished, and we went outside to catch the ferry to Matiu/Somes Island (“MSI”). It gets its name from the English name given to the island in the 18^th century, and the Maori name for the island. There was some disagreement about what to call the island, and in 1997 a decision was made to call it by both names, which is how it is known today.

On arrival at the ferry, we collected our fish’n’chips lunch, to eat on the way – all part of the deal. The ferry dropped us off at the jetty, and we were informed that the next boat back was in 20 minutes, and the one after that in three hours. As it was a nice day, we decided to stay for the three hours.

The first thing you do when you arrive at MSI is go to the Rat House. This isn’t some German Parliament building – it does exactly what it says on the tin. MSI is a predator-free island, and they want it to stay that way, so the first order of the day on arrival is to ensure that you haven’t brought any unwanted visitors with you. This includes seeds of mainland plants – they’re trying to restore the flora to native species only, and the mainland positively abounds with introduced European plants, so soles of shoes are vigorously inspected for mud. Once they’re satisfied that you’re pest-free, they release you to tour the island.

At the top of the island is an anti-aircraft gun emplacement. Early on in the Second World War, Japanese planes from aircraft carriers had been seen from New Zealand, and it was decided that air defences were needed for the capital. As it turned out, the US rooted the Japanese out from the region fairly early on (the battle of the Coral Sea) so by the time the battery was operational it was redundant, and no shots were ever fired in anger. The concrete emplacements are still mostly visible, although the trench system has since gone, and the weapons themselves have been removed.

The island has also been used extensively as a quarantine station for animals (livestock) arriving in New Zealand for farm breeding, as an internment camp during both world wars, as a leper colony (as the unfortunate story of Kim Lee testifies), and as a fortress by the Maoris before Europeans even arrived in Wellington. Nowadays it is used as a predator-free nature reserve, and is one of an increasing number of places to have a tuatara population.

We went about the island in a fairly haphazard way, but covered pretty well all of it in our allotted time period. We were searching for tuatara, but didn’t see any. We saw plenty of common skinks,

and also red-crowned parakeets

and fantails (as usual, they wouldn't stay still long enough for me to photograph them), and the occasional North Island robin. The giant wetas failed to turn up as well – there were various boxes placed in the undergrowth where wetas were supposed to hide out, as they like the dark, but none of the ones we looked in contained any sign of life. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll see them another time.

After that, it was back to the ferry, and the mainland again. After a hard day’s walking around the island in lovely autumn sunshine, we needed a rest before going out in the evening.