Brigitte’s autumn hideaway

Posts Tagged ‘beach’

Early in the morning we drove over the Rimutaka Ridge to Wairarapa. At Lake Ferry we made a stop at the play area.
Then we headed further to Cape Palliser.
On the left we could see this beautiful sandstone formations.

It is the entrance to Putangirua Pinnacle scenic reserve, which was an open stage to Lord of the Rings (The path of death)
Our destination was the Lighthouse, so we left the reserve behind.

As my children, I have never seen a lighthouse at the ocean. It was fascinating!
We made a lot of pictures which you can see in our Cape Palliser Album, please click here.

The ocean was so deep blue and I liked the orange colour of Pig’s ear which are introduced from South Africa. The flower stalks can reach a high of 60cm.

On the way back we saw wild seals for the first time of our live! Christoph made some great movies.

This are New Zealand fur seals which live on rocky beaches. They can reach a length of two meters. At the moment New Zealands fur seal population is around 60 000 and grows about 2 per cent per year (ref: Fieldguid to New Zealand Wildlife by Lindsey and Morris)

If you visit New Zealand I can recommend you this trip which suits the whole family
But be sure to have nice weather since the road can be slippery when wet.

We made a nice trip to Pukerua bay beach and walked along the shore to Plimmerton.

Christmas trees are in full bloom and the air smells sweet.

You can see more pictures of the track in our album (please click here)

I also up dated more albums! Oh my, the last I made in June!!!!
Please click here to see the new albums.

Enjoy!

A few day’s before Christmas, Christoph surprised us with this lovely rabbit!

We call him Benny

Like every year my husband made some “Butterkekse” (butter biscuits) for Christmas…

… and the children had fun to help him.

On Christmas day Benny and our kids were very excited to find all the presents under the tree.

With friends we went to the beach and enjoyed a merry Christmas in this beautiful country.

We had a great time and on the way home the kids fall asleep while holding hands

Saturday morning started with Alma!

My husband found this lovely cheese in New world at the Wellington railway station. They are from Austria and when you spread such a cheese onto your bread you know that only Austrian can make such a delight!
Oh dear, love goes through the stomach… at least in my case

After the breakfast we went to Tawa Spring market. It was lovely! We saw (and heard) men with bagpipes, bought some delicious muffins and marmalade and purchased also a Mystery bottle! Aileen’s school had this great idea to wrap bottles into brown paper so you never knew what you got. That’s cool!

On Sunday we went to Bunnings where we saw this lovely old car.

After our coffee in the nice cafe at Bunnings we went to the beach. It was low tide and we found so many beautiful things!
This anemone has violet tentacles!

And look at this large sea cucumber!

Aileen brought us this little hermit crab.

Of course we also played in the sand

Christoph captured me while I was just meditating… or trying too… who can meditate when there is so much going on around you???

Today was the warmest spring day and we enjoyed it all. There are more and more trees, shrubs and flowers blooming.

I am so happy!
Today is also a beautiful evening and the moon arose already in late afternoon.

David loves the moon so much he is always searching for it. First thing in the morning he looks out of every window and you have no chance to get him away for breakfast if the moon is outside.

He sure has a lot of my gens… because I will wrap me now in warm clothes and enjoy the night of this beautiful moon

The weather here is unusual because we have winter and this day was warmer than some summer days!

We went to Spicer’s and found some new Basket fungus sprouting.
In my picture you see an old one and in front of it a young brown bud which is edible.

When they are open like a basket they are to chewy to eat.

After our forest trip we went to the beach and I was blown away by its beauty! This is New Zealand winter and all is blooming!

The African daisies are so beautiful!

David and Christoph inspected a big kelp:

While Aileen was making “Sand angels” (instead of Snow angels)

And I collected some Ice plant leaves for pickles… yes, you can eat them!

You can also eat the Neptune’s necklace which has fresh new shoots! And of course Sea lettuce which you can collect the whole year round.
As soon as I got time I will up date our Albums where you will find more pictures of this awesome day!