Hope you had a not-too-lonely Christmas. We had a lovely day in Auckland with Nicky, William, Emma and Shaun and some other people you have never met.
Here are Willaim, Emma and Nicky having a champagne Christmas toast in Emma's garden.
We had a swim in the sea near Emma's house, but unfortunately there were no dogs allowed there although Kiwis are generally very keen on their dogs. 
Nicky has a cat called Jeffery. I think you and Dougal would be scared of him becuase he has a very funny face!
Here are Willaim, Emma and Nicky having a champagne Christmas toast in Emma's garden. We had a swim in the sea near Emma's house, but unfortunately there were no dogs allowed there although Kiwis are generally very keen on their dogs. Nicky has a cat called Jeffery. I think you and Dougal would be scared of him becuase he has a very funny face! 
We are both still feeling a bit jet-lagged. (But I havent turned into a giant teddy - I am taking the photo!) love to Dougal and to Gremlin
the Foodlady x x
We didn't actually see any dingos but saw a strange painting of dingos in an art gallery in Melbourne. An artist called 
This was a better painting of what they look like. 
And here are some regular 
We went to this park called the Fitzroy Gardens and saw this statue of Diana and her hounds. There was also an amazingly Fairy Tree filled with creatures carved into its trunk. 
Steve Booth took us to the beach at Port Philip and we looked for Little Pengins but didnt see any - but we did see was giant Silver Gull! 
Not quite the flowers we see on our walks, but here are some King Proteas for sale at a market in Melbourne. 
Here is the Alpha Male at Raffles having a Singapore Sling! And we threw peanut shells on the floor! It is very hot here - not scotty weather.
An enormous Baboon Spider, Harpactira baviana, was lying in wait on the path, but we didn't notice it luckily or Dougal might have tried to catch it because it was hairy like a rat.
Three fit ladies in the Garden of Eden. 
There were also lots of 
and this pretty pink parasitic plant called Harveya purpurea, the Yellow-throated Inkflower.
While we were having tea and crunchies in the Fit Lady shleter, we were joined by two strange humans with a huge mattress on their back who tried to climb upside down on the roof of the Fit Lady Shelter, then moved on saying that they would return once they had warmed up. We didn't wait for them, and walked on because we were well warmed up ...
...and even though the Foodlady told us there was Cape Snow all around, it sure wasn't cold snow like what you would find in Scotland! Here is Dougal in the Cape Snow Syncarpha vestita. You can just see Pauline in the background. 
Luckily there were a few caves and cracks where we found some shade to cool down in. Here is Thea coming through a shady crack in the rocks. 
When we were almost home, we met another Scottie who could speak German, called Max, who joined us for a dip in the stream. Tails up! 
Standards have definitely been raised with the arrival of Josie who is a very clean, very refined Maltese who only drinks out of her own bowl, and who doesn't eat human or ordinary dog food because she has allergies and needs her own special food. 
We all set off up Pecks which was very hot. Sue set a blistering pace, you can see her and Lucy in the photo above, behind the clump of Syncarpha vestita (Cape Snow). 
And here I am near the top - shouting encouragement to the stragglers. 
They then all set off along the road to the 
but the 
and a stray ray of sunlight just lit up this 
Some astonishingly large caterpillars were decimating the 
They eventually got down to the 
The Alpha Male and Wyndham joined the soggy walkers for more drinking and joyous times in front of a fire that 
Sue and 
and Lisa and Wyndham in front of the fire...
and Lucy and Stephen. 
Richard dealing with the most delicious looking 
The 
Sue was there today, and Richard and Lucy (so Dougal didn't have to be the alpha male today as our Alpha is still off walks because of his tendonitis) and Caireen was back after a hellovalong break! Josie, another Maltese came along too but she thinks she is a human and treats us with disdain. See what I mean. 
We had tea under the waterfall, 
and I tried to make friends with Josie, but she wasn't interested. 
The Food Lady saw lots of interesting plants, including this splendid 
We came out into the newly cleared area which is starting to look less like a volcano blast site. There were lots of good, good smells... 
and some orchids and bulbs coming up on the cleared slopes, like this not-quite-open Moraea bituminosa. The flowers only open after midday and die by the end of the day.
And this Acraea horta butterfly on some Quaking Grass. The males are a beautiful dark orange. This butterfly is full of cyanide and it is thought that it gets the cyanide directly from its host-plant, the Wild Peach, Kiggelaria africana. You can smell the cyanide if you crush a leaf. (The anti-herbivore defence system of this tree seems to have backfired on it because by providing the acraeas with a means of defence against predators, it contributes to the success of its chief enemy.)
