Kereru in plum blossom

Yesterday S and I went north to the beach house; after voting in the General Election. So much out of the routine (the last time we had gone to stay a night was at the end of May, four and a half months ago) that I packed my laptop into its carry case and then left it in the study. So I'm posting a day late.

I had a really lovely walk as the tide was racing in. Snells is a huge flat expanse and once the tide starts to move (in or out) it has quite a force. The time of day was quite wrong for most of the waders, although the heron were there in numbers. The extra is one of them moving to avoid the dogs running uncontrolled; and me I guess. The second extra is a photo I'm rather pleased with.

I think the kereru is a better photo, and hence is my blip. But the tui perch high in the pohutukawa trees, against the light, and until this one I've usually got a lot of darkness and often poor focus. The KP is a very sensitive camera, and I'm finding it responds well to my quirks.

The evning was spent watching (yes watching) Radio NZ's presentation of the election counts and results. A great result for New Zealand, in my opinion. Labour are back as Government with a significant majority. What I was most intrigued by was the big party vote which Labour got. Even in seats won by the National Party, Labour often won the Party vote in the electorate. And the Greens did well too. They are the first party to return to Parliament through party support after being in Government as a minor partner. At this stage they have 10 MPs, and they could get another one, maybe two (the latter is unlikely) after all the special votes and overseas votes are counted. 

Daughter J was third in the electorate where she was a "paper candidate", campaigning only for the party vote. She was recognised because of how well she had done in the City Council elections last year.