Royal Spoonbills

It was really exciting yesterday morning driving through the Estuary from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast in sunshine.

There were about five Royal Spoonbills just close to the road, feeding in the low water.  I have never seen them quite so close.   They don't mind the traffic at all - they just ignore it.   Sometimes there have been up to seventeen of the birds in this area.   They are quite rare.  The Maori name is Kutuku-ngutupapa. 
They feeds on insects, shellfish, small fish and frogs.You can identify them in the distance by the way they feed, walking and sweeping their spoon bills from side to side.

Black Swans

We were driving to town from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and on the canal in the sunshine were this lovely family of Black Swans.   They originate in Australia, but have happily naturalised here, and sometimes on the nearby Estuary there are literally hundreds of them bobbing up and down on the water, resting from the Ocean beyond the Spit.   These parents are very forward in having their Cygnets, because most of the other Swans have much smaller babies.

There was a young couple with a toddler having a picnic lunch very near the Swans, and I was a bit apprehensive for them, as Swans can be very dangerous, but the couple were totally unfazed by the Swan Family.  Such a treat to see the birds so close.

kayaking and sailing

On the Estuary again, en route to Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast someone was kayaking.   It is so exhiliarating just to watch all the fun and activity on the water, never mind doing it.   There were lots of small boats dinghy racing, and one or two were having problems turning at the buoys because of the wind, and perhaps because they were not quite as expert as some of the other sailors.  It was misty out towards the sea, but inland the sun was shining brightly - quite a contrast.

Kite surfing and wind surfing

Yesterday afternoon the wind was up, and we were driving back to Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and there were a huge amount of water activities on the Estuary a few minutes from our home.  You can  see how strong the wind was by the angle of the windsurfer, and also the wake from the kite surfer.   Friends of mine are very good kite surfers so I am sure they would have been out enjoying the weather.

Native Flower.....

Driving from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast into the centre of Christchurch yesterday, I had no problem parking (not that there ever is, actually), as the car was being serviced.   My friend and I walked through part of the Gardens, which are looking very very pretty with the Rhododendrons, Camellias, Michelias, flowering, among the exotics, and in the Leonard Cockayne Garden in the Native Section, there was Cleanthus, amongst others.  It is called Kaka beak locally, because the flower is supposed to look like the beak of a New Zealand Parrot.     Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Cook saw it flowering in Maori gardens in the 18th Century.

I love the New Zealand Native flowers, because most of them are dainty and elegant, and quite shy on the whole - not overly dramatic.

In Town Today

I drove into town today from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast to do lots of administrative things, not least the annual car service.  I had to wait for four hours while it was being done, which gave me a great opportunity to see a friend and have a treat of a yummy tapas lunch at a restaurant inside the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, and en route I saw two somewhat forbidding statues of Superintendants of Canterbury in the early days - the 1850's and 1860's - one inside the Gardens, and one just outside.  They looks so immensely self confident and as if they knew all  was well with their world, and yet they had only been out here for a few years and were real pioneers.  The first settlers lived in tiny A frame houses, one of which is in the Christchurch Museum, which is at the other end of the path from the restaurant my friend and I were in.

It says on this statue 'Wm Sefton Moorhouse  - to whose energy and perseverence  Canterbury owes the tunnel between the port and the plains'.    The tunnel is almost 2km long.  I know because I measured it when I drove through last week from Lyttelton.  Quite a feat in a very young country.

On to another job.....

Spring

In the garden  at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast the Kowhai is flowering, and is the most beautiful bright yellow.  It's official name is Sophora tetraptera, and is the floral symbol for New Zealand.     That is quite a mouthful to say and almost everyone calls it Kowhai, which is Maori.   There are actually 8 different types of Kowhai, and once you get your eye in, it is interesting to decide which one you are looking at.  The different varieties flower at different times from early to late Spring, and to see a small tree absolutely covered in flowers is special.   The native birds love them too especially the Tui and  Silver Eye.

The evenings are drawing out which is great, because it means you can have more time walking on the beach, or surfing, or just watching the waves.   We have had great sunny weather recently too.

Concert

Tonight from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast we are going to a concert in the centre of Christchurch, at the James Hay Theatre.   It is easy to get to, as it is only about 20 minutes drive away, or we could go by bus, but we prefer to drive ourselves at night.  

Christchurch is such an easy city to get around in, as it is not very large, and the centre is logically planned.  It was first designed only in 1850, so it does not have the complications of so many much older cities.  The centre is Victorian Gothic, and it is interesting to notice how the visitors here from Asia are fascinated, as for them it may well be the nearest they will ever get to seeing Northern European style 19th Century Architecture, and here we are far away down in the Pacific, and our next land mass is Antarctica! 

Our weather is absolutely glorious, and the Spring colours are bursting out.  Again we have a wonderful mixture of plants from all over the world, which adds to the exotic interest.   We are called the Garden City, and there are literally hundreds of gardens looked after by the city.  They vary from the huge Botanic Gardens which are spectacular, (and I am going to show lots of photos over a period of time to show this); to tiny ones only a few feet square/metres square.

must go.

Today on the Beach at Sumner

Today at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast  the sun is shining brilliantly, and the view of the Kaikoura mountains is very clear - glimmering in the far distance  across the huge bay.

I have just had a walk on the beach, with the tide low, and there are quite a few surfers out there.   Lots of people walking their dogs, and just enjoying this glorious spring day.