So this is winter?

The good thing about being at work is that you can chew over the key issues of the day that's impossible when you're a lone domestic executive. There's a good multi-racial mix of ex-pat people where I work so we've been pondering the various obvious signs of winter.

Here in central Wellington, you'd not know it was winter - apart from the biting wind and freezing raind - but you just don't get those winter symbols like you do in the UK. Deciduous trees in hibernation for one.

So, when exploring at the weekend I was delighted to see that there were indeed signs of hibernation. This pic shows the bare trees nestled against the lush green of the native bush on our latest trip up to Kaitoke (this time to the Kaitoke Regional Park).

To prove my point about the weather, it was pretty cool too to spy these trees impacted by the prevailing wind. This is my first meeting with remarkable kiwi trees and what a spectacle they make, don't you think?