Tuis and Monarchs in Rawene

I'm one of those people who likes to walk around other towns looking to take photos of things I see that others don't think much of. Last week in Rawene while B was spending a penny I spotted this mural on the front of a garage door in the main part of town. It's a NZ Tui bird with what looks like a monarch butterfly to the right - I've no idea who painted it, despite researching but I think it's a very pretty piece of Kiwiana.

Our Tui live throughout the country, they have different coloured feathers of blue green and bronze hues with a tuft of white featers under their necks.  They are not a threatened species but love to eat fruits and nectar such as Puriri, Kowhai, Fuchsia, Rewarewa, Flax, Pohutukawa, Gums and Banksias.

It is such a treat seeing them as they are so different from other birds. 

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Monarch butterflies everywhere

After a couple of bush walks on our days off this Monarch butterfly caught my attention on our way back to the car. Easily distracted I am I think! After following it I found there were quite a few more than this one. It's been such a mild winter up here that it feels like Spring has come early, maybe that's why this guy was out enjoying the sunshine.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Hello Mr Butterfly!

On a whim Sunday morning my 17 year old and I decided on a whim to take a Summer outing to our local Te Puna Quarry Park. We left home first thing in the morning because by about 10am here it's sweltering hot.

One thing we noticed is that all of the Swan Plants were in bloom and there were ALOT of butterflies and and caterpillars. Perfect season I guess - mid to late Summer.

We walked up alot of the hills and by the end of the day my legs were killing me, reminder to self: do stretches before trying that again. We were only there for about an hour and a half as it had warmed up considerably - think we're looking forward to some cool temperatures once Autumn gets here in March - bring it on!

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Te Puna Quarry park - Observing Nature

On another one of my travels last week I visited the Te Puna Quarry Park which is about 15 mins out of Tauranga and what a lovely place it is. This time of year for us is winter so I didn't expect much in the way of colour - and yet I was very surprised. Above is one of two Monarch butterflies I spotted on a native NZ Hebe plant.

Near the entrance this wonderful Autumn coloured picnic area complete with seats, tables and sculptures.

At some point I discovered a bush walk and on the way past the stream I saw this rather large Nursery web spider hovering underneath it's web on another native plant. Normally they are only active at night and thankfully it isn't poisonous in any way.

I found these colourful flowers in the nearby Louis Braille Sensory Garden and with some of the textures I can understand why. The pansies above still provide some colour at a time when most things here are slowing down and resting.

And cyclamens plus Gazania dasies are perfect - the latter tend to flower all year round at various times and love poor soil.

Hope you enjoyed this snippet of where I've been this week - have a great weekend - more Saturday Critters here :-)