Spotted these ducklings on the water sculpture in the Botanic Gardens. The concrete around the sculpture that contains the pond is quite high so I am not sure if they can get out. Someone had put some branches into the water as a way for them to climb out.

One brave little duckling had a go at it, but gave up part of the way. He then swam off and found his own spot to stand on.

Now and then, the mother duck would pop up and check on the babies.

Hope they are ok and finally got out of the pond.

I went along to check out the protest today – it was very well attended. Quite a few people are frustrated with the city council so turned up to have their voices heard. Check out the Press article for more details about the issues.

Bruce and I had dinner out tonight at one of our local restaurants Thai Talay. It’s a great place for some tasty Thai food – the service is always good and fast too. I had the chicken with cashew nuts and Bruce had the lamb shanks. They were both delicious. It’s a beautiful night in Christchurch – which is very welcome as we’ve had some interesting weather this week. I’m looking forward to finally getting along to the Buskers tomorrow – I’ve not felt up to it this week as I’ve been nursing a rather painful shoulder injury. Thai food helped though …  as did the glass of wine and excellent company.

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All around the city there are vacant demolition sites that have burst into life with wild flowers growing in patches. I’m not sure if someone has dropped some seed mix onto this spot or not – but some of the planting does look a bit random in places. I know there are some sites that are being purposely greened via Greening the Rubble – which I think is a fantastic initiative.

This spot is on the corner of Manchester and Welles Streets.

For the last week I have been away on holiday in an idyllic spot called Bulwer. It’s also a fairly remote spot as well – it took us about 8 hours to drive there from Christchurch. It was the most wonderful place to spend a week away from the everyday that is Christchurch post earthquakes.

The first photo is a shot of the jetty at the beach taken at sunrise – which was about 6.30am. The seagulls flying off at just the right time was a lucky break!

Here’s the hill by the beach – swathed in early morning sunlight. It’s all native bush and hills – an those hills are teeming with birdlife.

This is the bach Bruce and I stayed in – we had an amazing view of the beach – we left the curtains open at night so we were woken up by the sunrise – this is probably the only way I managed to get up at 6am to take the early morning shots.

And here is the beach during the day. I’m not sure the photo does it justice, it was so lovely and the water was so blue and actually almost warm. I went for a swim by the jetty but freaked out a little when a sting ray swam past. Apparently he was harmless unless I stood on him! There were also seals that played around the jetty – they were really amusing.

One of the local seals that would entertain us.

This is a weka – they were everywhere and rather amusing to watch. They are very curious birds so you can not leave anything out that they could carry off into the bush.

And lastly, here is the wood pigeon that kept flying between the trees in front of the bach. I was determined to get a photo of it. There were actually a couple of local wood pigeons and often they would fly into a tree at the same time. They are very clumsy flyers so are quite comical when they land in trees.

Well, there’s just a taste of this stunning part of New Zealand. If you want to stay where we did (and I highly recommend it) you can check out their website.

Thanks must go to Katherine for looking after the blog in my absence. She’s done a wonderful job with some excellent photos. I’m looking forward to getting back into snapping Christchurch – as we have quite a few interesting events happening right now – including the Buskers Festival. So expect to see a few busking photos this week!

So this is my last day of blog watching for Michelle. She’s back from holiday and taking over again tomorrow. So for the last day a little bit of blue. These beautiful blue flowers are growing in our garden at the moment. No idea what they are as I’m not much of a gardener (if anyone knows then please do tell me). I’ve had a lot of fun filling in for Michelle this week, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my photos. If you would like to check out my website then please do at www.kapcha.co.nz. Thanks all – Katherine x

It was a beautiful evening tonight so I went for a bike ride after work along Marine Parade. The surf lifesavers were out on Brighton beach doing practice runs into the water. It was quite an impressive thing to watch, especially when the boat hit the waves as at times it looked like it might tip over.

So weather wise it’s been a wild, windy and humid day in Christchurch. I tried to head out to take some photos but ended up with a face full of dust so decided it would be better to just head home and see what I could find there. And Sammy didn’t disappoint. Sitting behind the curtains when I got home, it was a great opportunity to get some nice silhouette shots. A bumblebee had found his way inside to shelter from the wind, and so Sammy took to trying to catch the poor thing – I wasn’t sure who was going to end up worse though! He luckily did get away in the end unharmed (the bumblebee that is) and made the great escape back out into the outdoors.

I don’t know about you but I think there’s nothing better than catching up with friends for a drink on a sunny evening after work. Tonight my friend Rachael and I went to One Bar at the Palms. It was a beautiful evening to sit outside enjoying a little glass of something and catching up on the weeks gossip. And as we were both driving the next drink was a round of tea and hot chocolate complete with an impressive amount of marshmellows: