Long Time, No See!

A blog post by Emma

We thought it was about time to say ‘hello’ again after not being around for the best part of a year. A lot has happened whilst we’ve been away, and we’d like to share some of these exciting events with you.

Since our last post, we’ve made our annual migration from the UK to New Zealand and back again. We have been as busy as anything with work, volunteering and our most recent life-endeavours. The most significant piece of news being that our team of two now has a new explorer…

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A Little Critter

In May this year, Tom and I welcomed our very own little critter into the world. He is now 15 weeks old, holds two passports, and has already travelled halfway across the globe. World, watch out, here comes Ezra Paul!

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  Tom, Emma & Ezra on their first day home from the hospital

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  Ezra collected his first botanical specimen whilst out gardening with Mum last week

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  Ezra, our budding entomologist

So, mums and dads who travel and adventure, we’re looking forward to hearing some of your tips!

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A Beech-side Proposal

No, that’s not a typo. It was a mast year in New Zealand, so many of the native plant species were fruiting. The beech trees were putting on a beautiful display of delicate, red flowers and Tom and I decided to camp amongst them for a couple of days last year in November.

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  Reflections in Mavora Lakes

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  Flowering beech forest

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  Reflections in Mavora Lakes

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  Just us!

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  A native New Zealand Robin seeing if we have disturbed any leaf litter

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  Sunshine, cloud, wind, rain

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  Our campsite in amongst the beech trees

Little did I know that Tom had an ulterior motive for the camping trip. You can imagine my surprise when Tom held out his hands claiming to have found a “really cool insect” yet, when he opened them up, there was instead a ring. Either way, he could have guaranteed that I would be excited.

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  Beech flowers and the “really cool insect”

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  The sun setting on a pretty special day

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A Nest of Our Own

Around two years ago, Tom and I bought our first house together. It’s in my hometown in New Zealand just on the outskirts of town. We’ve been renting it out but, not long after arriving back in New Zealand this last season, we finally made the move!

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  Tom, Emma and their new nest

What we love most about the house is the garden. In fact, it’s what drew us to the property in the first place. The section is just over half an acre, and once we cleared away the ivy and bindweed, we discovered a whole host of beautiful trees ranging from natives to ornamental to fruit.

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  Our pōhutukawa (NZ’s Christmas tree) in full flower

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  A rose from the garden

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  A monarch visiting one of the many dahlias

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  Produce from the garden

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  A freshly emerged monarch butterfly (foreground) with native admiral caterpillars safely wrapped up in nettle leaves (background)

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  Our vegetable patch

We’ve been renovating inside, too. We still have plenty left to do, but we’re really enjoying having a project of our own.

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  Tom putting in the insulation

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  Emma and the “bump” strike a pose whilst sanding

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The Adventure Continues

We’ve already got a backlog of wildlife adventures that we can’t wait to share with you.

Whilst we were in New Zealand, we visited the Royal Albatross Colony at Tairoa Heads. We also volunteered with the Department of Conservation on the Kākāpō Recovery Programme out on Whenua Hou Island. Along the way, we met numerous amazing plant and animal species.

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  The Facebook announcement for our kākāpō trip (and for the little mammal we were smuggling with us)

As for the UK, we’re now settled back in and will be staying until Christmas. We’ve both been busy learning the ropes of Parenthood. Tom has been working hard out in the field surveying newts, bats and reptiles, and I’ve been on baby duty and desk-based work.

We don’t plan on stopping adventuring any time soon, so be sure to look out for these blog posts and more in the coming weeks!

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