Garden Orb-weaving spider

I was taking Cousteau out for his nightly comfort stop when I spotted this rather impressive looking lady. I yelled to Mr B and to Little Miss, who raced out to take a look. Mr B held his phone torch very near to the spider and then, when we were thinking it would be good to have some sort of scale to show how impressively large she was, Mr B headed back inside for his tape measure.

I did a Google search to find out what sort of spider she was, and it turns out that she's a Garden Orb-weaving spider. They very rarely bite and when they do, their bite is non-toxic to humans. When I headed out there first thing this morning, she'd packed her bags and headed off to hide for the day. We are hoping she'll come back tonight! As long as she stays outside, she'll be safe, from us at least!

Oh, and the Extra pic shows how large she is.

We went out for a lovely dinner at a restaurant in Gisborne. Such tasty food!

Night all.

~Barking~