Winter has arrived.

Pukawa missed the storm that bought the heavy snow to the South Island, once again living up to the reputation of having it's own micro climate.  Yesterday morning however we woke to see the Kaimanawa Range covered in snow as was Mt Pihunga, a true indicator that snow had fallen on the Desert Road.  At lunch time today the Desert Road was closed but seldom are both sides of the mountain closed so travellers can always travel via National Park should the Desert Road be closed. There was such a strange sky early this morning a "shepherd's warning" sky, the morning remained quite nice but by mid-day the southerly had arrived and it is now windy which has dropped the temperature to eight degrees.

Kiwi news.

We have had a report of a kiwi being heard in our bush, a few nights ago.
This report came from a person who grew up where kiwi were fairly common and she has heard them here in Pukawa before. From time to  time we receive reports of kiwi calls, I spoke to one home owner who remembers seeing kiwi walking through his section in the very early days of development.  Pukawa has long been considered a corridor for kiwi, we just have to keep trying to make a safe environment so they will stay. There is a lot of leaf litter in the bush now which should make ideal feeding for kiwi, we can only keep hoping.
We were told that the best way to identify kiwi call is to count the number of times it repeats  the same notes, ten to fifteen times and you can be confident you heard a kiwi.

Mice.

There has been a huge increase in mice numbers so look for mice signs in  your house when next in Pukawa. Rats too will have moved into warm places for the winter and they can do so much damage to pipes, wiring etc.
Over Queen's Birthday week-end Mitre Ten ran out of poison which shows wise people are taking precautions.
Our cameras showed how easily mice can climb a vertical object and we know that they can squeeze through the smallest opening.

Successful event

The mistletoe event on Sunday was successful, it was especially pleasing to see so many  adults all wanting to increase their knowledge .

Ranger Anna McKnight did a puppet show with the mistletoe story that had the children enthralled, it was brilliant.

The TDC had donated two trees which the children enjoyed planting in the Arbor Day corner, we thank the TDC for those.

Stickers were given to the children which had a nice illustration of mistletoe drawn by Cathy Jones, we thank Cathy for allowing us to use her drawing.