Storm aftermath continued -checking a line for pests

Bait station with egg and Nutella for bait. Mouse prints can be seen on the papers

I volunteered to help help out with the continuing audit after the storm to check for pest incursions. I was given a line involving the main track above the top dam, then following up the perimeter fence and down a fire-break to complete the circle.
I headed past Tui Terrace and spied a pair of California quail. Though not native I always enjoy seeing them as they busybody about, acting important.

Busybody quail

As it was sunny and warm for winter, I decided to make a day of it and took a packed lunch.
My job was to open the bait stations, remove the blotting paper, check for footprints and replace with new papers. If upon opening there was a putrid smell, I was to remove the egg that had gone off and throw it in the bush being careful not to splatter it on anything close such as myself. I had to add Nutella as fresh bait. No problems!

Well, the first problem was a surprise. I opened the box, the egg smelt good and there were only mouse prints on the papers. I then noticed I had an audience. OG-KM, or Og the robin who I work with when giving robin talks had showed up hoping what I was doing included mealy worms for him. Robins being so curious are a problem as they are liable to investigate a bait station and have a poke around. Today I was changing adding bait, not poison, but poison could be added at any time. Already a robin has managed to eat a poison bait and been killed and I would not like the same fate for Og. He is a dominant little bird who turns up at other birds' territories to try and cadge an extra mealy worm when we are doing robin talks.
He flitted about and I hoped if poison was laid he would not be able to access it. I left him sitting on the box and I knew the next person was going to find Og prints on the papers and Og would be bopping about in other robins' territory with trendy red feet caused by walking through the ink pad.

Og the 'Orrible appears on the scene

Then I had a problem with the path. Though the storm had occurred weeks before, parts of the track were still blocked with felled trees. I chose to crouch down and go underneath. Tree ferns were denuded, their fronds torn off and scattered. I went past another tree ripped out by the roots which were on display in the air.

After the storm the track was a bit of a mess in places

Ponga (tree ferns) with their tops gone

A large pine ripped out of the ground

My next problem happened at lunch time. It was a beautiful day. I found a sunny spot, opened my sandwiches and started to eat. My sandwiches started to turn red. Og may have acquired red feet, but I had red hands from handling the papers, ink pads etc and now my sandwiches were turning red. I had been told the dye was harmless food dye and I hoped so as I was hungry and ate my red tinged lunch with gusto. So it was only a problem for fussy types.

My last problem was with a bait station that had had a gust of wind through it. An ink pad was gone, it was full of leaves, and the egg had rolled off its little stand. I picked it up carefully and oops, my fingers went straight through. Though not exactly rancid, it was not pleasant. I was glad I had eaten my lunch as I would have baulked at handling my sandwiches with not so pleasant eggy fingers. Then I wasn't so glad I had eaten my lunch as it began threatening to return as the smell wafted around my nostrils. But, hardy person that I am, I kept my lunch down and staunchly continued on.


No more problems. There were no signs of  cats, rats, stoats or weasels. I ambled down the fire break track checking the last of my bait stations, called in on the radio that I was heading home and made my way out.

Shake Rattle and Roll

Whew - superficial damage and jarred nerves the main result of the latest earthquake

We were out of Wellington, in New Plymouth celebrating the success of Wellington Brass which had just won the National Band A Grade Championships for the first time in thirty three years. A walk along the waterfront before dinner seemed a good way to fill in an hour. We parked the car and were about to get out when for some reason our car started to jump about on its own. The first thought was that someone was shaking it, but when we looked across the road and saw various poles attached to a nearby restaurant dancing away rhythmically by themselves we realised it was an earthquake.
I checked on my phone and yes, a 6.8 (later reduced to 6.5) earthquake had struck off the cast of Wellington and given the city a good rattle. We certainly felt it three hundred kilometres away.

We had left Wellington three days earlier and had heard a significant earthquake had occurred shortly after our departure. I had kept up to date with subsequent shakes through my phone app connecting me to Geonet and had presumed things were gradually settling down. But no, they were building up for Sunday's effort.

Thank goodness no-one was significantly hurt and damage to buildings were in the main superficial.
We decided to return to our quaky home on Monday as planned. After all earthquakes are a regular occurrence in Wellington.
My ancestor Douglas Mary McLane was around during the major 1855 earthquake. She owned several properties in and around Thorndon built by her sons and repairs cost sixty four pounds.

Douglas Mary McKain

That earthquake threw up some handy land. Wellington's down town is mainly built on it and the number two highway from Wellington to the Hutt is constructed on it. Swampy land became usable and the Basin Reserve was no longer a lagoon and was reconsigned as a cricket ground. The future airport became available. So Wellington has been created by earthquakes and is built around a fairly large fault line. I have heard the city described as the twist in a towel that is being wrung. On one side the land is sliding under a plate and on the other it is sliding over the plate thus creating constant tension.

As we arrived back we saw a large sign suggesting that people not go into the Central Business District as they were still checking out buildings and cleaning up. In the suburbs all was calm and our house was still parked where it should be and had not been shaken off the hill. Inside a clock had fallen off a wall as had a couple of ornaments but that was it. No cracks, no shifting of the building off the piles.

Today the city is to be back in business and everyone is to get on with life...until the next one. In the mean time we will change over our emergency water bottles and make sure we have enough food for a few days and something to cook it on.

The major fault lines around our city

More fault lines surrounding us

The Wellington fault line heading through the suburbs and Zealandia

My supermarket

New Zealand -where two tectonic plates collide

 The Wellington Fault line


The recent earthquake

48 hours of Wellington Quakes

Pest Detecting Dogs

Scott and the pest detector squad

                             
Detecting for pest incursions is still going on in Zealandia after the violent storm a few weeks ago which caused a tree to fall and breach the fence.
I met up with Department of Conservation predator dog ranger Scott Theobold and his three little pest detector dogs on the way out of the Sanctuary.
The little dogs surprised me. I had always imagined they would be of the robust outdoor dog type - sort of like hunting dogs but with higher aspirations. Noble sorts of breeds. But in fact not at all. These three looked like your average family toy dog pet. They were little stiff legged, border terrier crosses bred and trained to sniff out mustelids and cats.
Crete, Brown and Buck wore little orange high visibility vests to show they were working dogs, plus muzzles and very cute they were. The muzzles were to make sure Sanctuary inhabitants such as the takahe were extra safe. The dogs have had intense avian aversion training but wore the muzzles just in case they were tempted.
Crete sniffs out cats, stoats, weasels and ferrets. Brown's speciality is cats and Buck who is one is learning to track cats, stoats, weasels and ferrets. Crete is the oldest at nine and Brown is five.

They travel throughout New Zealand tracking down pests wherever they are needed.

dogsCrete, Brown and Buck like working after rain as all scents will be fresh. When I met them they had checked about half the valley and had found nothing untoward.
Lets hope it stays that way.

Its an ill wind....

There was a break in the weather so I went for my first run since our return. As I turned the first corner at the bottom of the hill I stopped and checked out the big change that has happened in our suburb. Ever since we shifted in there had been a ramshackle group of buildings with large diggers inside, plus an assortment of derelict cars and junk. For a while a colony of feral cats were present as well.
 In our absence the lot has gone! Evidently the iron roofing had come loose and was in danger of flying off in the last gale. Council had decreed it was a hazard that had to be fixed. The owners decided to cut their losses and hire someone to pull down the sheds, remove them as well as all the junky cars and rubbish.
The place looks reformed and our suburb no longer encompasses a rubbish dump. The storm has managed to achieve what many residents had prayed for for years. I continued my run much cheered by the improvement.
Once down in the bush I could see more storm damage. A tree was down across the path, and there was a washout making it difficult to pass at one point. It was here I stopped to talk to one of the people who had formed the trust to create the walking paths and clear out the weeds and exotics along the Kaiwharawhara Stream about fifteen years ago. Their work has created a great space, popular with runners and walkers alike, especially those with dogs as they are able to run free in this area. To prove the point, as we talked about ten happy dogs shot by followed by their owners in leisurely pursuit.

A tree blown down by the storm across the path

As the Council is overloaded with storm work volunteers from the Trellessick  Park Working Group have been tidying up storm damage on the track.

I did a couple of circuits staying in the bush as I have missed it and its unique freshness and smell while I was away.
In the dampness I saw a few of my favourite fungi, the basket fungus with its white lattice work standing out against the lush green. It is endemic to New Zealand and the Maori give it a far more evocative string of names: Tutae-whatitiri, (the droppings of thunder), tutae kehua (ghost dung), tutae whetu (star dung) and tutae whaitiri (lightning dung) due to the fact it appears suddenly in stormy weather.

I

a basket fungus or tutae kehua (the dung of ghosts)

A couple of basket fungi

Refreshed I headed home once more, pushed along by a light rain shower heralding the fact that another stormy day was brewing. As I passed the railway station I was amused to see four kereru or wood pigeons sitting on the overhead wires. Due to the recent storm the trains were not running so that repairs could be done to the lines. The kereru were enjoying an undisturbed though rather exposed perch for the day.

Kereru on the electric train wires - there were four of them spread about

Og the 'Orrible

Zealandia's toutouwai or robin talks have been  advertised and officially started a couple of weeks ago. I did my first 'show and tell' on Tuesday. I dutifully stood by the sign advertising the talk at 2.15pm. The day was cool but the sun was shining and there were plenty of people about enjoying the valley. It is one of the most sheltered places to visit in Wellington in winter as it is protected from both southerlies and northerlies. Locals are beginning to cotton on to this, leading to a steady stream of visitors. A female tuatara was out basking and a couple of people were watching her. I managed to gather seven people and launched into my talk.
I explained our robins are not actually related to Northern Hemisphere robins, instead being closer to tomtits. I extolled the fact they are numerical geniuses in the animal world being able to count reliably to seven and unreliably to twelve. Studies being carried out at Victoria University verify this. They also cache food once their tummies are full and steal cached food of others. They are very canny little birds indeed.
We set off to a robin's territory to show off some of these wonderful skills. Mr RpB-pBM was a right little trooper who appeared as I set up, posed photogenically for the tourists and cached his fourth meal worm having gobbled the first three in rapid succession. My audience left at this point, except for two American University students who decided to accompany me as I worked with the rest.
The guy at the picnic table who is unbanded, Mr Dither, was true to his character, hopping back and forth, at times not getting the sequence quite right. He flicked open the leather leaf on the little log and got his meal worm, ate it, looked for another before I had replenished it and danced about shaking his wings. He was then unsure whether to cache the next one or eat it, then checked to see if I had placed another one in the hole before he had made up his mind. Finally he ate it. As he took the third he noticed a robin lurking a little distance off and instead of caching he went roaring off to chase that robin away with a mealworm still hanging out of his beak. I packed up and off we went to the next customer - Mr OG-KM or Og for short.

Now Og is proving to be a dominant little bird who has figured what is happening in his neighbourhood. He has no qualms about turning up at the dinner table no matter whose house it is in. He polished off a few mealy worms before caching and we shifted off to Salmond seat, the territory of an unbanded bird. Og was there to greet us, flitting and chirping. We can only feed the correct bird at each site so despite his best efforts Og was not rewarded for his cheekiness.
Off we set to the next site. Much to the amusement of the US students, Og followed us, keeping to the bush, and there he was again  as soon as I set up the arena, hoping for a feed and very pleased with himself.  Again I packed up and shifted on.
 At the next site the situation was repeated. Og the 'Orrible had stalked us and was the first bird to turn up. My student friends were delighted with his antics and his persistence despite the fact I never rewarded him. He was never backward in coming forward and I had to hold my ground and not give in to his cuteness or the entreaties of the students who thought such persistence should be rewarded and who were totally infatuated by him at this stage.

At the last two sites the correct birds turned up and all went to plan. My students waved goodbye - they were off on the ferry the next day and wanted to see a little more of Wellington before then.

I went back to base and wrote up my notes, amused by Og and his tricks. I thought out some new strategies to help keep Og at home but no doubt he will also be putting his bird brain to good use and will be trying to outsmart the next person who comes bearing mealy worms.

Storm Wellington

We arrived home early in the morning having spent three weeks exploring the delights of the Canadian Rockies.
The Air Hostess opened the plane doors and the wind rocketed in. "Welcome to Wellington," she said.

During our absence Wellington experienced a storm more violent than our usual storms with winds getting up to 200 kilometres an hour. The rail system was put out of action and the seas of the South Coast had fifteen metre swells which threw water up on the roads making them impassable.

Damage caused by trees falling in a neighbouring suburb

Links to videos of storm damage:
Major storm mop up gets under way
Wellington /storm
Clean up
A week later

And at Zealandia a pine tree fell on the outer fence causing a breach. Two volunteers who had taken on the job of walking around part of the outside of the sanctuary every few days to check for issues came across the fallen tree and stood in the gap to prevent any animal getting inside until help arrived. Zealandia staff have planned for these occasions and people swung into action. They worked into the wee small hours to fix the fence, fortified by scones and hot drinks provided by the Rata Cafe.
Then, having just finished the yearly pest audit, they had to complete it again putting out bait stations, checking for footprints etc. So far, so good. Nothing untoward seems to have made its way in thank goodness and Zealandia's systems have stood it in good stead.

Pines blown over in the wind

The damage

                                             .Hopefully no pests made it in.

Working in the dark to fix the fence

An extra piece has been put on top to deter cats from jumping in

 Sounds like it was a good time to be out of Wellington!

Te Papa

Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's National Museum

Te Papa is built to be tsunami proof. The main doors are opposite the sea-side of the building.

Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's National Museum, is situated on the Wellington Waterfront.

Last week I went to view the Andy Warhol exhibition and this week I was lucky enough to be part of a guided tour put on for volunteers at Zealandia.

I chose to come in by train, a short but scenic ride from my home through tunnels and bush then sweeping round a corner to give a spectacular view of the harbour before reaching the station.

  The Museum dominates part of the waterfront as it juts out toward the harbour like the prow of a canoe. Its site was a point of controversy due to Wellington being so earthquake prone. If a tsunami is triggered and sweeps into the harbour, a seiche may occur. Water will surge from one end of the harbour and back repeatedly, damaging the shoreline until things settle down again. Te Papa with New Zealand's treasures in it would be in the line of fire. This was taken into consideration when it was constructed and the building is supposed to withstand such onslaughts. Te Papa Tongarewa also has base isolators made of rubber so that it can survive large earthquakes as well. Lets hope it is never put to the test. 

We volunteer guides had an hour's tour with a couple of museum guides. Our guide seemed a bit intimidated by us even though we said she should just consider us as ordinary tourists. 

I was most impressed to see the Hawai'ian cloak and helmet given to Captain James Cook in 1779. He was killed three weeks later. They say the cloak is made up from 20,000 birds, some of which are now extinct.

The cloak given to James Cook three weeks before he died

The helmet that went with the cloak.

To finish off we tried the High Ride which threw us around a bit as we simulated bungy jumps and other more vigorous activities to be tried in New Zealand. 

Te Papa is always worth a visit. It is a great place to spend an hour or two and you will always stumble across something new as it is set up to be explored and for discoveries to be made. I had not seen the Hawai'ian cloak before as it is tucked away behind another exhibition on its own and yet it is important and exciting to see.