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.

Pukawa Family Event

Yes, Sunday June 3rd at 10am down on the common we will all gather to learn more about the rare mistletoe and see how many plants we can find growing in the settlement. Ranger Anna will be there to speak to us and help with the search. Family groups can enjoy this event as it is open to all ages.  We will be walking some of the streets as we search for mistletoe.
The TDC men have been busy putting in the new tree name plaques, several down near the common as well as up on  the top bush track where some of the big trees have been named. We thank the TDC for these plaques which will be so useful in identifying some of our native trees.

Hope you can join us on Sunday.

New Arrival.

Many people have fond childhood memories of buddeleia bushes, picinic days at a river where buddeleia gave shelter from the wind, little did we know that it would spread and become one of our unwanted plants.
Very little will grow under buddeleia, it smothers other seedlings so it has been placed on the undesirable list.

In 2006 SCION introduced a weevil into NZ on behalf of Forest Companies to combat buddeliea that had become an aggresive weed. It is a native of China. Extensive testing was carried out before permission was granted to release the weevil to ensure it only attacked buddeleia.  The lava stage of the life cycle feeds on leaves, sucking all the green out of them. It is spreading throughout NZ and is hoped to considerably reduce the plant. 
Now it has been seen in Pukawa so we shall be watching it with interest.

Monarch Butterflies

Has anyone seen monarch butterflies in Pukawa recently?.
I haven't seen any so I was surprised to see 8 caterpillars on a swan plant.
Unfortunateky the beastly soldier beetle also arrived and has killed the caterpillars one by one. I have squashed three beetles but usually by the time I see them the damage is done.  The butterflies may still arrive but it is getting very late even for this area.

Glorious Autumn

We have experienced the most wonderful Autumn weather over the entire month of April with several small amounts of rain to freshen things up. We don't remember having so many lovely sunny days and with little wind, it has been most enjoyable.
Yesterday Friday 27th we had light rain over night followed by steady rain all morning resulting in 20mls which would do so much good in the bush. I noticed on Thursday how very dry the bush was, the leaves "crinkled" as I walked.

Earthquake reports.

We often have reports of earthquakes in the Taupo region but at the bottom end of the lake we seldom if ever feel  them so no shakes here at Pukawa.

No news

I have fallen behind in reporting on my blog, but do remember that no news is good news.(:-)
Pukawa once again missed the big blow that caused so much damage from Taupo north. I personally witnessed the damage on Tuesday as I travelled to Rotorua and on arriving back found Taupo shops in darkness with many closed due to the power failure. Wondering what I would find at Pukawa I reached home to find Russ and his friend returning from a walk in the sunshine with only a gentle breeze blowing, we never lost the power here either.
On Wednesday night however we did have heavy rain, 43mls but that would do a lot of good as it has been so warm the last few days.