My cabin is right across the street from the local kindergarten (similar to our preschools). If I’m here in the afternoon, I can often hear parents shouting ‘Slow down Sarah! Wait up darling!’ as their children go hurling down the street to the car or the local dairy for an ice cream. So sweet.
Spent the day at Zealandia, a ecosanctuary in Wellington where they are reintroducing native wildlife and trying to increase the numbers of some of the endangered species such as the spotted kiwi bird and tuatara. It is a peaceful and beautiful place where you are surrounded by gorgeous trees and bush, and a large lake in the middle. I couldn’t get over the many different kinds of birds that obviously feel safe in this predator-free environment – there is quite a population of California quail, they didn’t seem concerned when tourists got within a few feet of them to take pictures. A tall fence surrounds the 500+ acre property and there are traps all around Zealandia and in the nearby parks to get rid of non-native predators.
They had a very impressive short, unnarrated film showing how New Zealand lost many of its indigenous species and forests due to invasion by people and pests and how Zealandia is helping to recreate those areas. There was also lots of information about how Individuals can support native species to thrive in their own backyards. And, in a combination of all my favorite things in one place, there was even a beautiful free little library!
Annemarie and I had dinner at Hell, a great pizza place that also makes delicious onion rings. Afterwards we walked down Cuba Street and past a restaurant where the patrons and staff were all outside. We saw several firefighters inside and guessed there might have been some kind of kitchen fire. Not long after we arrived the firefighters gave the all clear and everyone applauded! I love how supportive people seem to be of community service workers, almost everyone says thank you to the bus drivers when they get off the bus and I’ve seen people engaged in friendly conversations with police officers. For dessert we stopped at Duck Island ice cream where I got a salted caramel cacao crumb ice cream, the ‘tiddler’ size, just one small scoop. At that point we were both tired so headed to our respective bus stops. I had to laugh when I noticed the ‘Bus stopping’ signal on my bus was upside down – guess it was Friday night for the bus too. 😝
I use the Pedometer app on my phone to keep track of my steps and try to get a minimum of 10,000 a day. Since I’ve been off work I’ve been averaging closer to 15 or 20,000 steps a day, and have achieved pretty much every badge on the app, except for one, the Mountain Climber, where you have to climb over 100 floors a day for three days in a row. I would occasionally get one day over 100 floors, usually on a long hiking day with my buddies, but I never got 2 in a row, much less 3. Now that I’m in Wellington where hills are just part of the normal daily journey and I don’t have a car so I’m walking a lot I have achieved the mountain climbing badge – I walked 101 flights the first day, 120 to the second day and 141 the third day! I wasn’t necessarily trying to get so many floors on the second and third days but it didn’t take much extra walking to get in so many floors. Whew, no wonder I’ve been sleeping so well at night.
