Clouds

The clouds were looking cool as I took my samples today, so I made a time lapse video of them

For some reason youtube made this video quite jerky... if you want to see the full video which is smoother and has more pixels view it here!

Misplaced anticipation

It was probably about a month ago now, and I was at Nev’s house – more than likely eating and watching some form of cheesy Sci-fi.

I picked up an issue of Top Gear magazine, and flicking through it I stumbled across something which I will always remember and want; even though (I have now found out) I can never have one…
So what is this item of such lust? This alluring material possession which instantly made me fall in love with it?! Well, being a car magazine, it was of course a type of Volkswagen.
So here it is, the GX3

This 3 wheeled concept was made, to much public excitement, in 2006 and 2007. I didn't realise at the time, but the Top Gear magazine I'd read at Nev's was actually from 2006 - hence me wrongly thinking, for a short and exciting few weeks, that owning one was a possibility... The GX3 was powered by a 1.6l engine from a Lupo GTI, and could go from 0-100k's in about 5.7 seconds. Not the fastest I know, but still fun!

I think it also looked awesome - love the idea of the asymmetric headlights, and it was nice and low to the ground too.

But as I have already said, it was not to be. I found this out when I googled the GX3 for more information - it seems that VW was too concerned by the lawsuits which would have started rolling in from Americans once people started hurting themselves... As we all know they like to sue for everything in the US, even when it's their own fault.

Never mind though, it was a nice dream, and maybe one day they'll bring it back to life!

RIP GX3

Posts: 101 and counting!

Hmm, well I just noticed that I'm past the 100 post milestone, which I think is pretty exciting! (and gives you an idea of how unexciting my life is at present...)

My week = Raupo swamp...


Saying that I did find a few interesting things when I was doing my sampling today, including;

A Damselfly which was happy to pose for me...

A pukeko's nest (it must be said it's hard to take a good photo of it... sorry!)

And inside the nest I found, surprise surprise, a pukeko's feather...

Getting out of Palmy

Seeing as though my spraying was delayed yesterday, I decided it would be a good opportunity to get out of Plamy! I thought a trip over the hill to Mt Bruce would be a good option, especially as they've recently redeveloped their visitor centre...

Cool clouds as I was driving over - stormy over the Wairarapa, sunny over the Manawatu


So here is some of the new visitors centre - they've got a video which plays across a whole wall, showing what the forest used to be like and how it changed. you obviously don't get the full impression watching a video of the video... but it was pretty cool watching it right in front of you!

Then to outside: I hung out with a Kokako for a while. VERY cool birds and this one was pretty friendly too :)

I'm glad I got to see one this time cause I didn't last time I was there...
Here's a video of him - unfortunately the only impressive calls he made he did just after I arrived and before I started recording! If you don't know they normally sound like this!

Waiting in Palmy

This was me yesterday, at my thesis site.
After taking my last pre-spraying samples, I had time for a nap in my hammock between 2 cabbage trees... this is the life!
Unfortunately this morning it was raining, so my spraying (being done by helicopter) couldn't be done. This means hopefully doing it tomorrow, but in the meanwhile spending an extra day in Palmy. As we all know Palmy is pretty much a hole. There is not much to do here at all, apart from go to Uni. I'm not going to do that.
I even had a bit of an argument with a DoC girl last week about Palmy - she said she liked it, and when I asked for a reason why she said "because lots of cool places are 2 hours drive away"
I kid you not - that was the reason she gave! Sad I know...

Anyway, in my boredom I've devised a game for you all!
See if you can find all of the grasshoppers: (click to enlarge or it will be impossible)
When you've had a go here is the answer

Only 8 more days till I'm back in Welly!

At least I get to stay with Danny and Bruno and spend time with them :)

1 series

Have you seen the new add on TV for the BMW 1 Series?
I have... many times... and I think it's cool!

Well I've got a friend in the know, and using my detective skills found out who the song is by, so here is the song: The Presets - Are You The One
The video is interesting!!



If you like their music...

OK Andy, so how much are you going to give me for this free advertising?! A new car would be acceptable...

Anyway, it's the best car add I've seen in a while, although the competition has been pretty low...
In fact one recent add (for the new Barina) is I think the worst I've ever seen. Sure, I realise I'm not the target audience for it, which appears to be girls who think car engines have a 'big heart'. Saying that even my flattie Christine was far from impressed, and she's the one it's meant to be aimed at! If you haven't seen this sad example of how not to sell cars, here it is...



No wonder the local Holden dealership is being liquidated!!

Ngaio leaf

Another day gardening in seatoun, and as always I'm distracted by a photo opportunity... This time the sun bringing out the detail in a ngaio leaf... I'm suck a geek I know - and I'm ok with it!

Also found this guy after cutting back a tree - Kadydids are AWESOME!

Eel trapping

Over the last 2 days I've been up at my thesis site, attempting to see what the eel population of my thesis site is. The plan was to do a quick survey before and after the spraying of Roundup on my site to see if the eels are effected...

Step 1: put out the fyke nets (which we did yesterday in the rain... not so fun)
Step 2: stay with Danny and Bruno over night, with mandatory wine drinking and Desperate Housewives
Step 3: pull out the nets and see what we got!

So here I am this morning, pulling out one of our larger nets (thankfully it was a nice day today!)

One of the interesting things we caught were about 200 adult Diving Beetles. These are the adults of the larvae I found a few months ago - Onychohydrus hookeri - and like the larvae, the adults are also pretty high up the food chain...

In a pond that is...

This is what they can do to a Common Bully which was stuck in a net with them for a few hours... not a nice way to die I think!

Unfortunately most of the beetles we caught were drowned in the nets - the adults need to breath air which the collect from the surface and hold under there wing cases.

The good thing about finding so many of these is that we could get some compelling stats if the population drops much after spraying... so that was an interesting twist and possibly some good extra data that we weren't expecting to collect.

And the to the eel's - we did find 2 of them (not as many as we were hoping for!) but they were both huge (well over 1m). This is pretty big for Short Fin Eels, but it's still odd that there weren't more young'ns with them...

They are pretty quick and didn't feel like chilling in the bin while I took photos!

Lots of other things to see - there were heaps of Damselfly adults flying about and mating - male on the top ;)
And there were lots of Dragonflies too - although these weren't so easy to catch on camera! If you can't find it have a look at the end of this post....

Pretty pics to end with - it really was an awesome day up there today.

Thank you so much to Logan for helping me out, and Danny and Bruno for putting me up for the night :)

Here's where the dragonfly is :P

Mantis @ work

A customer came into the shop yesterday with one of these a plant she was buying... So I took it off her to keep it at the garden centre!

He's a New Zealand Praying Mantis, and is good to have around as they eat lots of insects people don't want in their gardens like aphids and even wasps... I actually saw a mantis eat a wasp a few years ago at work, it was pretty cool cause the wasp was trying to sting the mantis as it was being eaten!

Tank update

Well I've added a few more fish, and the plants are growing well, so I thought a video was the bast way to show you how my tank is looking now...

The fish I've added are 9 Black Phantom Tetras and 8 Cardinal Tetras

New tank!

As I said a while ago I've sold off my frontosa and I'm starting a new planted tank, with a few South American fish...
here are a few of the first stages:




empty tank








added aquatic mix, with gravel on top and the bog wood

in with the plants!

This is a few days of growth now, the Indian Stargrass at back of the tank should reach the surface in less than a month which will make the whole thing look more complete...

I've also added the first of the fish; 4 Otocinclus. These little dudes don't look that amazing, or move about much during the day, but have an important job of keeping the algae in check without damaging the plants. They also stay nice and small (<4cm)>I also added a Royal Whiptail Catfish, who is quite pretty!
Keep an eye out for updates!

Pics from the weekend that was

Well I worked both days this weekend, so it wasn't the most exciting. I did, however, want to share two photos with you all.
This first demonstrates what a well hung plant looks like:
The second is the view from my new hammock, which I can put up in my garden and relax in after a hard days work! LOVE IT :D

In other news I got a phone call at 8.30 this morning and was told that I'd locked a customer inside the garden centre last night... and after 1 1/2 hours the police had to come and cut the padlock to get her out... ops!

In my defence there were no cars in the car park, and I had checked for people outside, but she must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time cause I didn't see her... Oh well, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it :P