I'm in Whakatane right now, at the midpoint of my two-week break. I've been having a lovely relaxing time hanging out with Mum and Dad and Hazy-the-cat, finishing up knitting projects, and messing around on the piano.
HRH Hazel
I took advantage of the parental picture-framing skills and got a neat print framed - this is 'Space Cat' by the Wellington artist Pinky Fang, in a clean white frame with atmospheric fairy lights:
I love the cat's glowing yarn-ball! Hopefully I can get this back to Melbourne in one piece...
It's a lovely sunny day today, so this afternoon Dad and I are going to Ohope beach to try out the new boogie-boards, and maybe get some fish and chips. :)
On Sunday night Willie and I picked up some fish and chips, and went to visit the colony of grey-headed flying foxes at Yarra Bend Park.
When we arrived, there were thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of them hanging from the eucalyptus trees on either side of the river. A few were flying around from tree to tree, and others were waking up and stretching. They got noisier and noisier, and more and more restless, until after sunset the air was full of bats...
I'm definitely not used to being around wild animals other than birds,
so it was quite disconcerting at first. Some of the noises they made were especially eerie! Luckily the bats weren't
interested in us at all - they stayed well up in their trees and sky.
I took these photos (and video) on my phone, which is why they're a bit dodgy -
although I think the blurry motion effects are cool! We'll have to go
back again soon with a video camera. Apparently there are also echidnas in the park, and lots of birds, so perhaps a daytime trip too. Now that Willie has a driver's license, we can take advantage. ;)
Apparently these bats used to
live in the Botanic Gardens, but had to be relocated "due to the
sensitive nature of the vegetation". I wonder how one relocates a colony
of bats?
