Welcome to Autumn

My first post for ages - thanks to poor weather, illness, and a heavy workload I just haven't been able to go anywhere! I've definitely noticed that autumn has moved in now, as there have been lots more rain showers recently. That's not to say the temperature reflects it though, it's usually at least 15 degrees here, getting down to around 10 at night. I also had to put on one of my winter jackets the other day, and a scarf! Having said that, today was a gorgeous day, but I was holed up in the Marine Rescue Centre doing training with the Coastguard :( I would have preferred to have gone on a day trip somewhere, but decided that since I'm still in recovery from a bad cold I would be better sitting at a computer all day. I hope to get out somewhere next weekend if the weather is good.

I did manage to get out to 'The Domain' on Saturday to try and get a bit of fresh air. The Domain is basically a large park just on the outskirts of the centre of Auckland; it has some woodland walks, a Wintergarden (although it's open all year round), several fountains, some playing fields, and is home to the Auckland War Museum. I started by doing one of the woodland walks, but it felt a bit odd as although there were leaves on the ground to indicate autumn, there were tropical-looking trees lining the pathway!

After doing one of the walks, I went up to the Wintergarden which pretty much all in greenhouses. It was quite busy, so didn't have the opportunity to take pictures. It's all free though, so no doubt I will go back again in the near future. My favourites were the chilli plants and the cactus house. The chilli plants were great. They had 'Ghost Chilli' growing, which is apparently the hottest chilli in the world. On the Scoville scale (measures chilli hotness) it gets a rating of 850,000-1,500,000. When you compare it with Tabasco red pepper sauce (2,500-3,000), birds eye chilli (50,000-100,000) and law enforcement grade pepper spray (1,500,000-2,000,000) it puts it into perspective. Needless to say I didn't try one!

I then moved back on to The Domain grounds and spotted a really cool tree which captured the autumn colours here perfectly. I have absolutely no idea what kind of tree it is, but I took a picture because I liked it!

On the way back home I took one of the woodland walk paths and found a small waterfall and quaint little humpback bridge. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Crombie Park in Scotland. I have taken pictures of very similar bridges and waterfalls there. It was quite nice to get a little reminder of the UK.

So, I hope you all enjoyed your Jubilee celebrations. We had a gun salute at 12pm down at the waterfront which was nice, but that was about it really. I suppose we did have a national holiday, which was actually the best bit! 

Hope to have some slightly more exciting stuff to tell next weekend, although a lot of it depends on the weather at the moment :(