Silvereye

Saw a couple of these little beauties in Wellington's Botanic Garden yesterday (where the Hydrangea dell is looking really spectacular just now). The bird is a New Zealand native, the Silvereye or Waxeye, or White-Eye, or Tauhou, and the pair dutifully appeared just yards from a notice telling visitors all about them. Perhaps they're on the payroll... I can report also that the museum in the garden's Carter Observatory, 'New Zealand's place for space', is excellent, the best of its kind I've seen, with explanatory interactive displays to please children and adults alike, lots of content - and, happily, plenty of attention given to Maori and other creation myths (which, of course, make far more sense than the science).