Western Springs this week was all crazy busy with people setting up for Pacifika Festival… we took a wander along a walkway that climbs up behind the Auckland Zoo, much more relaxing getting away from all the cars and tents filling the park.  A really hot day, it felt fresh and cool under the pines and ferns.  Luna enjoyed the adventure and Blake slept in the ergo.

Beautiful isn’t it?  Waiorea or Western Springs is where rainwater collecting on some of Auckland’s biggest volcanic cones, Three KIngs, Mt Eden and One Tree Hill filters through lava flows reaching Western Springs clean and clear.  It used to be a source of water for Auckland city, and from the park you can see the original Pump House, in MOTAT.

Just so into clouds these days!

And of course lichen, clouds and lichen, clouds and lichen..

Lichen coating the trunk of a fern, can you see the vinehopper?

A lovely old pair.

The girls had a blast riding the Waikino Train this month, it was a ride of about 30 mins, and a stop over at the Waikino Station Cafe, just long enough for a cup of coffee and scone before heading back to Waihi.  You can catch it from either end, and return or go one way.  Luna LOVED it as well, and is still talking about it.

The train is a bit rough, but in an authentic kind of way… the chairs were those ones that flip one way or the other, the paint was peeling off in places, see?

All packed and dressed up before the trip.

More outings for the girls…  hanging out in the woodpile, Nina and Nancy.

Nancy and Isobel.

Depending on your timezone, the first artificial satellite, Sputnik was launched by the Soviets fifty years ago today, on October the 4th 1957.

Pretty exciting stuff considering this kicked off the space race, apparently the satellite passed over the USA twice before they were aware of it. Well before I was born people had been to the moon (or had they?) and space travel was not such a new and crazy idea. Interesting to think how this would have gone down in the midst of movies and novels that painted a picture of the future full of interstellar travel and life in colonies on distant planets.y years ago today, on October the 4th 1957.

This looks like a great event, at 11am and 2pm on the 22nd and 23rd of this month there will be an opportunity to see fashion from 1920s-40s.  The parade includes garments from private collections, and is to be held in the Winter Garden at the lovely Civic Theatre, so not to be missed!

For more info:

Auckland Council website

Auckland Art Deco website

113 years ago today, New Zealand women were given the right to vote, with over 90,000 women voting for the first time in the next general election. This really was a milestone, New Zealand was the first nation to give women the vote (a hand full of states in America gave women land owners the right to vote in local elections, along with some provinces in New Zealand) – and it did not result in the break down of the family, husbands and children did not stave as a result of women suddenly becoming interested in politics.

The right to vote in most Western countries is a given these days, but we wouldn’t be where we are now without the efforts of some very hard working and dedicated men and women.

Patricia Grimshaw wrote and excellent book on this subject entitled:

Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand, put out by Auckland University Press, 1972, 1987.

Read on here at Te Ara and on the New Zealand elections website