Pukekos after the rain

Well let me tell you, I am not going to mention how quiet life is again.

Since last week, when I mentioned the earthquake, we have had floods.

Not too bad at our property but bad enough to close schools, 

businesses and to set up  civil defense headquarters. 

The city was cut off north and south with some of the highways under water.

A lot of homes were flooded and one rest home had 

to be evacuated in one of the low lying suburbs.

Most of last week was spent in clean up mode

 for a large portion of the population.

 Really heartbreaking for some.

We stayed hunkered down at home with only a couple of leaks in the roof.

Everything in our little town is back to normal now but it will take longer in the city.

At the weekend we took a trip over to the local tip

Which is where I spotted some of our feathered friends in the distance. 

Pukekos! 

I had never seen them here before and was quite excited. 

My GKB said they are there quite a lot so he didn't know why I was so impressed.

Since I came down south to live I have only ever seen them beside the highway, 

in places you can't stop to watch or take pictures.

On the West Coast where I grew up they were a lot more common 

and wandered in the paddocks and were quite prolific.

Of course the ground was more swampy in a lot of places

and probably more to their liking over there.

It is rain forest country and can be quite a damp place, to put it mildly. 

As we were leaving we had to avoid hitting some of them wandering on the road.

And then...

around a corner and we came across this fellow bathing.

He was submerging himself up to his shoulders, 

getting up, shaking himself off and doing it all over again. 

We watched through the car window for a couple of minutes then my GKB 

decided to get a bit nearer and try to get a better pic. 

Well Mr Pukeko wasn't having that and climbed out of his bath

 and stalked away at a good old pace, for him, with my GKB in hot pursuit.

And that is why the final pic is a bit blurred.

No co-operation at all, can you see the frown on his face, haha.

If you would like to read a little more about the pukeko you can do so here

joining in with:

roses of inspiration
good fences

Have a good week,

Diana