Autumn colours

Autumn has descended and there is no place like the Wellington Botanical Gardens to soak up the colours of the changing season. Most of Wellington’s native trees are evergreen and so the change of colours associated with a British autumn is not found across the city. In the South Island there are plenty of beautiful spots, such as scenic Arrowtown, to experience the burning, sunset of colours.

This afternoon, in beautiful sunshine, I took the girls to the gardens. We fed the ducks, meandered in the ‘Wetland garden’ by the duck pond, collected leaves and played at the playground. They always love to visit ‘The Treehouse’ Visitor Centre, which is also home to the office of the World Wide Fund for Nature, where I used to work before becoming a stay-at-home-Mummy. There are some wonderful displays for the children.

Yesterday morning we visited Karori Wildlife Sanctuary with our very special friend, who we shall call Loose! She is like family to us all and we always love having her to stay. She took this spectacular photograph of a toadstool. It must be the season for them as we they were hidden in secret corners of the Botanical Gardens too. Of course the girls thought this was very magical and crept around looking for fairies!

The Visitor Centre provided the girls with a wonderful education resource to fill in as we enjoyed our walk. Charlotte happily walked for well over an hour and we were greeted with sightings of a saddleback, lots of to tui, a couple of kaka and wetas. There is so much to learn from a visit to the sanctuary, for young and old alike, and the message of conservation and planning for a better future is very much living and breathing!

The past couple of days of autumn sunshine have been a much needed break from last week’s howling southerlies – which simply beat the stuffing out of everyone and occasionally blow a child over!