WEATHER TODAY

After lots of false starts and rainy weather it now looks like summer is finally here to stay with lots of blue skies and sunshine.

SURF REPORT

Wind and surf are up. Waipu Cove now has its own Surf School - enquire with your booking!

NATURE REPORT

Zany's Haven supports and is a subscriber to the New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust. Once common, this small shorebird is now in danger of extinction with less than 40 birds left in New Zealand. Within easy walking distance of Zany's Haven is one of the few sites, at the Waipu river estuary, were they still breed.

The start of the Fairy Terns breeding season this year is looking good with both pairs at Waipu laying single eggs that have both hatched, the first on 2 Dec and the second on 6 December. The first Fairy Tern chicks to be successfully reared at the Waipu sandspit in four years are now in the process of learning to fish with their parents down at the Waipu estuary. The chicks in seperate nests at different ends of the sandspit, coped well with the heavy downpours in the last week of December and now have most of their juvenile feathers.

Last season was disasterous for the Fairy Terns breeding program at Waipu with feral cats attacking nests and birds, to people trampling on chicks two days from being able to fly. The DOC rangers have been working hard to trap the cats and educate the beach goers, but even they can not be there all the time.

The preceeding breeding season at the Waipu River Estuary Reserve was also of limited success. Other birds to be seen at the Reserve include other rare NZ birds such as the NZ Dotterel, Caspian Tern and Variable Oystercatchers.

EVENTS

Highland Games every January 1st in Caledonian Park, Waipu.

Waipu Street Market and Antique Fair as follows:-

Saturday 28th Jan, 7th April, 2nd June, 20th Oct 2012

Saturday 26th Jan, 30th March, 1st June, 26th Oct 2013

Waipu Market at the Coronation Hall, first Saturday in every month. There is also a new Sunday Farmers Market on the Second Sunday in every month.

Waipu Art 'n' Tartan show has been announced for 13th & 14th July 2012

Winter at Waipu has now finished, to see what you missed check out www.breambay.co.nz

GENERAL NEWS

Zany's Haven B&B has now passed its assesment to join the Bed and Breakfast Association, New Zealand which strives to improve and maintain quality standards for the whole of the B&B industry in New Zealand.

The whole of Waipu is talking about the second Art and Tartan Wearable Arts competition to be held in Waipu as part of a week long schedule of festivities to celebrate the wearing of Tartan. There were 57 Entries for the competition this year and the show was sold out in 15minutes! All the entries were amazing and they all deserved a prize. The event was a huge success and will be developed further in the years ahead. For more info see www.waipumusuem.com

The Waipu musuem intends to be the best small musuem in the Southern Hemisphere - come and check it out for yourself.

A WALK TO THE LOCAL WAIPU WILDLIFE RESERVE

This is my favourite short walk that I can do before having to go to work in the mornings. It only takes an hour and means I do not have to drive my car to the start of the walk. I just walk down the drive and turn right to Johnson Point Road and then left down that road and I am at the Waipu wildlife reserve ( about 10 minutes) where I can usuallly spot Kingfishers, Herons, Shags, Dotterels, Fairy Terns, Oystercatchers and a variety of seagulls. I usually like to go at low tide (when you can, if you desire, access the beach and go for a swim or if I have longer walk to Waipu Cove and back. A walk of 2 hours.) What makes this walk so interesting is the constant changes that happen at the mouth of the Waipu river estuary. The sand banks are never same and river is always changing its course to the sea. It is always good to go after a storm when the changes are at there most drastic and you can really see the power of nature. It always amazes me. It is also funny to see what washes up on the tide too. After a particularly bad storm you could see garden gates, perfectly cut logs that had been waiting to go on someone's fire, boots and shoes and even a garden chair!*! Funny thing is they all disappeared rather quickly. Guess I am not the only person who likes this walk. Why not come and try it for yourself?