Snotty Kiwis at Wellington Zoo

It has been a bit of a tough week in Wellie this week as we have had our first bout of colds and snotty noses New Zealand style and the Autumn/Winter weather has really begun. We have had lots of heavy rain and high winds which has meant we can't get out much and it has been a bit grim stuck in an almost empty house.

Dd2 has been getting her back teeth through and they have been keeping her up at night and both myself and Dh have caught a heavy head cold. No its not swine flue although we have thoroughly checked the symptoms online just to make sure!

The weather improved slightly on Sunday although there was still a cold southerly wind. So we decided to have a stroll around Wellington Zoo. Its located near the centre of Wellington City and is quite compact but is still a brilliant day out.

DD2 and a Terrapin.

It was cold so chips and hot chocolate were a necessity.

The Chimpanzees had a commanding view over Wellington city and appeared to be watching a rugby match going on in the stadium next door.

Giraffes, obviously!

DD2 and some wild dogs from Australia.

You could get some really good views of the animals.

DD2 meets the lizards and the lizards meet DD2.

DD1 and the baby chimpanzee. He was only six months younger than DD2 and we noticed lots of similarities in behaviour!

The highlight of the day was meeting a real "live" Kiwi. They are nocturnal animals and unfortunately rather rare now in New Zealand and so you are unlikely to see one in the wild. They are the most fascinating and bizarre creatures I have ever seen. You can easily see why they are unlikely to have survived or evolved anywhere else other than New Zealand as they have no defences against any mammals and would be easily wiped out if not protected.

They have a nocturnal house in the zoo where you can see Kiwis in there natural night time habitat but they also give people an opportunity to meet a one legged kiwi called Tahi (which means "One" in Maori). He used to live wild in the forests near Auckland but was caught in a Possum trap and lost his leg. The man who set the trap found Tahi and took him to a vet who amputated his leg and he ended up at Wellington Zoo. They made him a prosthetic leg (in the hope this would help him to breed as he couldn't get his balance right) which he used for a while but he prefers to hop around on one leg.

Are you prepared?....Er ......no not really.

The earthquake last week has got me thinking that maybe we should have taken all the leaflets and booklets about preparing for emergencies a bit more seriously. When we moved into our house there were several booklets left in the kitchen draw about being prepared for emergencies and getting an emergency kit ready.

Its easy to forget that New Zealand forms part of the pacific ring of fire. It lies on the active boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates and is one of the most seismically active places in the world. North of Wellington there are a number of active and potentially active volcanoes in the Taupo volcanic zone.

The last major earthquake (magnitude 7.8) in an urban area occurred in 1931 in Napier, Hawkes Bay when 256 people died . Since then there have been earthquakes of just over magnitude 7 in 2003 and 2004 when no one was killed - both these occurred in relatively rural areas.

With all this history and potential for natural disasters perhaps I need to take all this advice to be prepared a bit more seriously. The people who own our house obviously are prepared as there is loads of bottled water stored in the garage and the gas and water off switches are very clearly marked.

This is all a bit different from the UK where the most dramatic thing we had to worry about was a bit of strong wind blowing a few tiles of the roof and a bit of flooding. Dd1 surprised me the other day when she told me about the earthquake drill she had at school when they all had to hide under the table. I think she rather enjoyed the whole thing.

In all the local communities that you drive through there are sign posts to the local "Civil Defence Centre". The following is an extract from Wellingtons Emergency Management Guide.

"In a major disaster or emergency Civil Defence Centres are activated by volunteers. The centres are situated in primary schools or other community locations like community centres.
In an emergency listen to your local radio station to hear which Civil Defence Centres are working.
The centres collect information about the impact of an emergency and inform the Wellington Emergency Management Office. There is very little equipment at Civil Defence Centres, so residents should plan to be self-sufficient.
It's a good idea to keep a note of your nearest Civil Defence Centre location in your home survival kit."

It all sounds very serious and very different to anything in the UK. I particularly like the bit about residents being "self sufficient". I think I had better get prepared.

So next week when our furniture arrives I will be getting a box and putting a torch and radio in there along with a first aid kit and camping stove. I also need to start storing some tinned food and toiletries. So providing a major volcanic eruption doesn't happen in the next few weeks we should be OK.

Our First Earthquake in Wellington

It was brilliant! I was sitting on the floor in the lounge (our furniture has still not arrived) and I thought someone was driving a bulldozer in the back garden and making the wall shake - then I thought it must be a very large underground train. Then I remembered we weren't in Brussels anymore and realised it must be an earthquake. The girls unbelievably failed to notice anything as they were to engrossed in Barbie singing on the TV.

It occurred at 5.16pm and was magnitude 4.1 - so not that big but still noticeable. Apparently there are 15000 earthquakes in New Zealand each year but only 250 are big enough to be felt. So I am looking forward to the next one - as long as its not larger than magnitude 6!