#new-zealand

My rubbish collector quoted a brand new customer $47 less than I pay after eight years of loyalty. It's completely legal, and it's everywhere.

Twenty-one years of band names typed by hand leaves a fossil record of human inconsistency. Here's what it took to tidy up the Matinee Idle archive.

A love letter to Matinee Idle, a cult radio show, and the rabbit hole it sent me down. With 21 years of archive data, 15,411 songs, and one very strange most-played track.

An easy 3 ingredient feijoa ice cream recipe. No fuss, no complicated steps. Perfect for using up feijoas in season.

Photos from summer 2023/24 in Hawke's Bay: sunsets and bike rides at Waimarama holiday park, Waimarama beach and Motu o Kura / Bare Island.

A Bluetooth car battery monitor sold by Jaycar was sending users' location data to China. I asked Jaycar what they knew. Here's what they said.

The 2023 Wellington bird survey results: kākā counts up 260%, kererū 200% and tūī 85%. The reason there are more native birds in my front yard.

Working from home comes with a view of a big pōhutukawa tree and the two kākā that visit it each week. Finally, a close-up photo of one of them.

How to make dried feijoa slices in a dehydrator, peeled or skin on (skin on tastes better and is far less work). Six trees' worth of fruit, sorted.

A kākā visits the pōhutukawa tree outside our house in Wellington on a Sunday morning, staying well up the tree and clear of the neighbour's cat.

Two weeks into Level 4 lockdown, the traffic and chainsaws went quiet and the birds moved in. A pair of tūī visiting our pōhutukawa tree in Wellington.

Photos from summer lunchtime walks around Wellington, including a harbour dip, taken on a Fujifilm X-T20 with the XC 50-230mm lens.