Sunday, 26 June 2011

Governor Grey's Garden

Wandering around the grounds of Mansion House on Kawau Island and strolling over to nearby Ladies' Bay, it was odd to find exotics in amongst the natives.

Governor Grey had been the Governor of South Australia before arriving in New Zealand and his two terms as Governor in New Zealand fell either side of a spell as the Governor of Cape Colony (now part of South Africa). Perhaps this was why he was such a keen collector of plants and animals.

According to the Department of Conservation, which now cares for Mansion House and the surrounding land, his gardens included olives, cork trees, spider lilies, loquats, custard apples, almonds, pineapples and cinnamon. Sadly for the native species, Governor Grey also introduced exotic animals, and Kawau Island is still home to peacocks, wallabies and kookaburras. Fortunately for the locals, the zebras and monkeys are long gone.

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Friday, 24 June 2011

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Monday, 20 June 2011

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Rabbit Island

On the way to Kawau Island on the Royal Mail run.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Monday, 13 June 2011

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Friday, 10 June 2011

Thursday, 9 June 2011

St Agnes to Fishing Cove, South West Coast Path, 2006

From Long Walk 2006


(I've been retracing our steps along the South West Coast Path over the last few weeks by reading Travels with Boogie by Mark Wallington. It's not nearly as painful reading about it as walking it!)

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Queen's Birthday Weekend

We don't get May Day or Spring Bank Holiday over here but the first weekend in June is the Queen's Birthday Weekend and the Monday is a public holiday.

Unfortunately, we spent our long weekend moving out and making room for the builder to start work (see Fantails & Fibrolite over the coming weeks and months for a blow by blow account of our renovations). So there are still no new photos to post here.

But in honour of HRH's birthday, I thought I'd post a few photos of some of the corners of England that we enjoyed before emigrating. To get started, here's the view from the campsite that we stayed on in Padstow during the second stage of the South West Coast Path walk in 2006.

From Long Walk 2006

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Monday, 6 June 2011

Sunday, 5 June 2011

Thursday, 2 June 2011

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

White Rabbits!


(White Rabbits! Red Cabbage!)