How Things Change and a Great Welcome Home :D

On Tuesday night I boarded a plane in Perth, arriving in Auckland at 6 on Wednesday morning. As I had been wandering around a wetland 4 days ago and ended up in a paddock with a bull I decleared my boots as I had stood in a few cow pats. I get into the line for NZ passport holders who had something to declare and I start wondering if I am in the right line because being born and raised in NZ I speak Maori and English yet in this line those languages were not heard, but I could see they had NZ passports ...

When I finally get to the "Biosecurity Screening officer"I explain about my boots and show him the soles. He says, "thats ok" ... what????? I have cow pats on the soles and all the other times I have declared my boots I have to go to the boot cleaning station, but this time I am let through with them as is???? No wonder there are more and more invasive speices being found if the so called "Biosecurity Screening officer" doesn't care. Oh, but he does send me to get my bags screened - nothing found, but never mind the boots - what a sad country this is when there are recent immigrants (his acent gave that away) being a "Biosecurity Screening officer", doesn't bother - probably because of the state his country of origin is - and I know personally as I have been there. Obviously he wants to help screw up our home ggrrrrr......

But when I get out there is a smiling face to greet me - how lovely! One of my nieces I visited in Queensland is home at the mo, and knowing I was coming i,n came to have a catchup with me before I boarded my next flight to Kerikeri so that cheered me up! LOL

As I am walking onto the tarmac to get the flight to Kerikeri I can not help but smile non stop - so much closer to home! But when we arrive in Kerikeri I get out the plane, look around then say to the air hostess " is this Kerikeri?" She assures me it is - they had demolished the terminal so no wonder I was confused!

The brother is there to pick my up and off we go on our 3 hour drive to his place, where I pick up my truck and go home. And finally I see my profile photo in real life! Naturally I go and have a look before going home and the tide was soooo low but I resisted the temptation to get down there as I knew I was tired and being tired and in the ocean could be a recipe for disaster.

However, the next day I was off down to the moana and oh what a wonderful greeting for me!

Wheke - octopus - are a common sight for me but this time, as soon as I was in water deep enough for them to be (about 300mm), I saw not 1, not 2, but 3 all in the same pool - about 400 - 600mm apart from each other! Wow! Octopus are not very social and yet here were three all gathered together to welcome me home - so magical!

Then when I got to The Rock - one of my favourite places - I saw a kina species that I had never seen before - totally stoked to see something new on my first outing back into the moana - I am so lucky to live here!

That afternoon also, I finally got down the back of my place and got a photo of an orchid in flower - I had known for about 2 years that it grew there but had not been in the country at the right time to get a photo, so something special from the whenua as well :D

So I am now back home, in a magical wonderland that still reveals amazing things for me to see :D The lines of the song are so true:
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Publicado el julio 13, 2018 10:23 MAÑANA por tangatawhenua tangatawhenua

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

tangatawhenua

Fecha

Julio 2018

Descripción

Here it is @bill-nz - I finally was here when these were in flower - 2 years after you showed me :)

Etiquetas

OT

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Pulpo Tétrico (Octopus tetricus)

Observ.

tangatawhenua

Fecha

Julio 12, 2018 a las 12:29 TARDE NZST

Descripción

How exciting - as soon as I get into an area deep enough for a wheke I see not one, not 2, but three all tucked under a rock - about 400 - 600mm apart!

Interesting to see the 2 different species here also - the first one is the Maori Octopus and the orange on its eye is vivid - and the colour did not change at all. Numbers 2 and 3 while having an orange tint in the eye also have white, which is never present in the Maori octopus. Seeing all three together I realised that the Maori octopus was larger than the other two who were about the same size. Not sure if this reflects age or another aspect of the difference.

Apparently wheke are not very sociable and don't really hang out together but these 3 obviously had a hui and decided to welcome me back into the moana I know and love after being away for 6 months LOL

1 of 3

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Pulpo Tétrico (Octopus tetricus)

Observ.

tangatawhenua

Fecha

Julio 12, 2018 a las 12:33 TARDE NZST

Descripción

How exciting - as soon as I get into an area deep enough for a wheke I see not one, not 2, but three all tucked under a rock - about 400 - 600mm apart!

Interesting to see the 2 different species here also - the first one is the Maori Octopus and the orange on its eye is vivid - and the colour did not change at all. Numbers 2 and 3 while having an orange tint in the eye also have white, which is never present in the Maori octopus. Seeing all three together I realised that the Maori octopus was larger than the other two who were about the same size. Not sure if this reflects age or another aspect of the difference.

Apparently wheke are not very sociable and don't really hang out together but these 3 obviously had a hui and decided to welcome me back into the moana I know and love after being away for 6 months LOL

2 of 3

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Pulpo Tétrico (Octopus tetricus)

Observ.

tangatawhenua

Fecha

Julio 12, 2018 a las 12:27 TARDE NZST

Descripción

How exciting - as soon as I get into an area deep enough for a wheke I see not one, not 2, but three all tucked under a rock - about 400 - 600mm apart!

Interesting to see the 2 different species here also - the first one is the Maori Octopus and the orange on its eye is vivid - and the colour did not change at all. Numbers 2 and 3 while having an orange tint in the eye also have white, which is never present in the Maori octopus. Seeing all three together I realised that the Maori octopus was larger than the other two who were about the same size. Not sure if this reflects age or another aspect of the difference.

Apparently wheke are not very sociable and don't really hang out together but these 3 obviously had a hui and decided to welcome me back into the moana I know and love after being away for 6 months LOL

3 of 3

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

tangatawhenua

Fecha

Julio 12, 2018 a las 12:58 TARDE NZST

Descripción

Totally stoked to find this as it is the first time I have seen one of these :D
Living on the rock in the G2

Etiquetas

Comentarios

That's a bummer about the bio security officer - I look to NZ as being at the forefront in the world for keeping invasives out of the country as well as fighting for NZ's native species to remain.

Publicado por wyattd hace más de 5 años

True @wyattd - hopefully it was a one off :)

Publicado por tangatawhenua hace más de 5 años

Welcome home e ko! It does feel great to be back when you've been away. I'm jealous of the octopuses - glad we don't have to say 'octopi' any more. :-) And you've missed winter, so that's good too. Sucks about the fact that we don't hear enough Te Reo, though.

Publicado por heni hace más de 5 años

Kia ora for that @heni - and don't forget to hitch a ride the next time your tane comes this way for fishing LOL

Publicado por tangatawhenua hace más de 5 años

`Good to have you home and can't wait for warmer weather to come out with you. Love reading your comments because where-ever you go something amazing happens. That plane at Scott's Point looks totally out of place on the rohe. One of my sister's Kim who has brought a house in Ngataki Road has 4 children and they want to go down and explore in the rock pools. I thought about the Henderson Bay project and am trying to find it so i can print off for them. Am sure that they will enjoy finding and learning about what is in those rock pools like i did. Will ring you.

Publicado por rongoa hace más de 5 años

Here is the link for the Henderson Bay Project
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/coastblitz-henderson-bay
and this link shows the 526 species found at the beach so far
https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=any&project_id=coastblitz-henderson-bay&subview=grid&verifiable=any&view=species

Didn't realise that many had been found @rongoa! Talk soon :)

Publicado por tangatawhenua hace más de 5 años

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