Chillin'

Sitting here in the cool of the evening listening to Eric Clapton playing blues after a long, hot, and fairly humid sort of day. It was my last "official" day of summer holiday (weekends don't count!), so we went over to Porirua for lunch at the Peppermill Cafe, had a wander around the art gallery there (some really nice art glass!) and then for a walk at the Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve - something we've been meaning to do for ages. It's easy walking along board tracks to the bird hides, and even though it was mid-afternoon we still saw quite a lot of birds. I spotted two black swans, heaps of shags, a royal spoonbill, a pukeko, and a shelduck in the wetlands, and a couple of tuis, a waxeye and fantail on the path (pictures of our NZ birds can be found here). We also saw a little mud crab next to the path hiding under some grass, which small daughter was quite fascinated by - she was less impressed by the bumble bee that was sitting in the middle of the path slightly further on!