The View from the Bridge

Cats and Chucks and Cars

Feral chickens are a common site in car parks around here - but I hadn't yet seen one with wild cats as well as wild chickens. This car park had whole herds of both.

A Snail Ate My Reading List

When I found these holes in my reading list, I couldn't quite work out what had happened to it. But James spotted the tiny teeth marks and attributed it to woodworm.



I had a scout around and found the culprit hiding in my donkey tail plant. A snail - which explains the mysterious silver trail that appeared across my laptop a few week's ago.



We made our snail friend comfortable on some onion skins whilst we ate dinner and then released him in the undergrowth on some wasteland nearby. James carefully placed him on a lower leaf, out of the way of a bird's eye view, and we wished him luck.

Personal Plates

There are a lot of personal plates on NZ cars. This is one of the more amusing ones that I've seen.

Stormy Skies

Matariki

It's the winter solstice here today and the Maori New Year - Matariki - is coming up soon. The festival is named after the Maori name for the constellation of Pleiades which rises at this time of year. The new year is traditionally a focus for storytelling, farewelling the dead and celebrating the harvest from the land and the sea.

Art Deco in Auckland

Much of the city centre is dominated by glass and steel high-rise office blocks but there's a good number of art deco buildings in Auckland too. This one - Eden Hall on Eden Crescent - caught my eye today with a very stylishly parked moped outside.


This apartment block was built in 1935 and is apparently one of the few remaining buildings in the city which reflects the International Modern Movement.

Chinatown

Auckland doesn't have a China town - there are Asian influences across the city. Here is one of my favourite shops - Wah Lee at the top of Hobson Street.


I haven't bought anything from there yet but that's mostly because I've found it hard to make my mind up. There are huge woks and pretty blue and white pottery, parasols and martial arts outfits, spices and rices, kites and fireworks... Everything you could ever want!

Strange Fruit

More exotic fruit appeared in New World this week with even more exotic names - tamarillos and persimmons.

The tamarillo is also known as a tree tomato but was renamed by the New Zealand Tree Tomato Promotions Council in the 1960s. It's a native of South America and has alarmingly blood-red juice.


The persimmon has a variety of strains that have been cultivated all over the world but is marketed in NZ by the Persimmon Industry Council which recommends dishing up the ripe fruit with smoked salmon. We enjoyed ours with melted chocolate...

Autumn Leaves II

Ginkgo bilbao trees on the way to work...

Red Sky at Night

Wet Winter II

It has stopped raining for at least an hour in the last day or so but the weekend is looking a bit soggy. Still picturesque though.

Wet Winter I

Winter in Auckland is wet rather than cold and it seems to have been raining relentlessly for days now. At least everything looks green and lush.

Muriwai Beach III

Oaia Island is home to part of New Zealand's northernmost gannet colonies. The gannets are all off an OE at the moment but we look forward to visiting them on their return in August.



You can see more photos of the West Coast here.

Muriwai Beach II

Muriwai Beach is a West Coast surf beach which runs for 50 km towards Kaipara Harbour.

Here it is from Otakamiro Point, the black volcanic sand making for a striking shot.

Muriwai Beach I

I had my first day off from revision in over a month today, in honour of James' new truck.

We took it out to Muriwai Beach, on the other side of the Waitakere Ranges in north west Auckland. The sun was out and the sky was blue so there were lots of surfers in the waves. We stayed on the sand though and left the truck in the car park - I didn't fancy getting it stuck in the dunes on our first trip out.



I'll put up more photos over the next few days...

Autumn Leaves

Queen Street is lined with palms but some of the side streets have deciduous trees which are now losing their leaves. Here's the autumnal scene on Wellesley Street outside Smith & Caughey, the kiwi equivalent of Selfridges.



The department store building was put up in 1929 having been designed by a Chicago-trained architect. Apparently the Lyceum Club has its home on the top floor.

White Rabbits!

Let's hope the only rabbit in the kitchen at this Thai restaurant is mixing spices and not being marinaded...