Christina,

@christinahulbe

wine mom, glaciologist, concerned, she/they/ia, views my own, obvs. Ka toitu ahau ki Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

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Christina,@christinahulbe· 27d

Quote post with a female superhero you love.

She Ra as realised by ND Stevenson. Standing strong, sword drawn, white costume with a peplum over shorts and gold embellishments, a teen She Ra looks determined and confident. The background captures the colours of a rising sun, with golden sun rays and a spray of stars.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Apr 5

Thursday after work celebration for a PhD student’s successful thesis defence - on the Friendship Lawn at the botanical gardens. Lovely autumn weather this far south, view toward the setting sun, under a venerable pear tree.

Looking southeast across a sloping lawn. There is not a cloud in the sky. Among the mix of trees in the middle distance, some leaves have turned yellow and gold. Pears are scattered on the lawn under the pear tree to your left. The wooden bench to the left is backed by a slightly arched stone wall. The plaque on the wall is shown in the next photo.

A plaque recognising sister cities Dunedin, New Zealand and Portsmouth, Virginia. The plaque includes part of a poem by Dorothy Frances Gouney:

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

The plaque is oxidised, and illuminated by shadow dappled light.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Apr 3

So I don't know guys, feels a little bit like

Hubert Robert's The Fire of Rome (1771). It took 6 days to bring the fire under control. Before the damage could be understood, the fire reignited and burned for 3 more days. Nearly 3/4 of the city was destroyed.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Feb 10

Hamms (1865 to 1997) with its home in Minnesota, grew to become a US brewing empire. The US lager revolution of the late 19th century was an immigrant success story. And a classic jingle.

In a classic example of commercial art, an anthropomorphic bear in a small fishing boat wrestles a tangled fishing line while trout look on. The colours are bold and straightforward - black & white bear, green siloutted pines on the banks, blue pond, red boat, dull green fish. The bear looks frustrated by the tangle. The poster advertises Hamms Beer. The slogan at the bottom of the poster says "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters." You can almost hear the jingle.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jan 29

Noticed on a walk today. Busy, busy riparian zone.

Looks up at two trees, brilliant blue sky, sun streaming through green leaves of tall trees, we see the front doors of two fairie houses. To the left, a two-story house front extends from the rough bark. A bridge made of twine and planks connects to a doorway in the tree to the tree in the right.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jan 17

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you joy.

Frontpiece/Shukan Shonen Sunday/Shogakukan/1967 showing Hyakkimaru, a tall young man in Japanese attire with a sword tilled into his belt. His full mane of long hair blows in the wind. He is looking off to the left, arms crossed, determined. Beside him, to the lower right is a child, arms also crossed, hair also blowing in the wind, but looking up to the older character.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jan 14

Mending a well-worn pair of pants for a younger person in the house. The lighter fabric with an interesting print that you see peeking through is part of the gift (a selection of scraps to add to my collection) from 2025 mid-winter #SecretSantaAoNZ. Just perfect. Thanks crafty Santa! 🪡 🎅

Visible mending of a tear in the seat of a pair of tan coloured pants. The pants look well-loved; the belt loops have a bit of a dull shine from years of wear. The mending pattern is geometric - a field of crosses in an offset grid pattern - and made with all 6 strands of lighter tan embroidery floss. Off-white fabric with a newspaper-looking print in rust peeks through the gap in the fabric.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jan 9

Our gingerbread house this year was in the same theme.

A gingerbread house built to look like the Onceler’s lerkum in The Lorax. The buttresses belie and engineering degree in the history of the designer. The house is dark tan, spicy, with skittles, Mentos, Fruitella, Hokey Pokey nonpareils, candy decoration.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jan 1

I can work with this. Swamps, bogs, fens, gumlands, marshes (fresh and salt), all the terrestrial watery and peaty realms. They’re all important and still being drained.

A graphic titled (Merriam-Webster) Your 2026 Word.

swampy

Christina,@christinahulbe· Dec 17

Couldn’t see the park space due to the front of your truck being in the way? 🤬

A black pickup truck, parked completely across, neatly orthogonal with, a shade-dappled footpath, just short of pulling INTO a park space on the other side of the path.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Dec 16

Thank you so much #SecretSantaAoNZ ! I ❤️ @pepperraccoon.com but never buy things for myself. The bandana is ready for our next motorbike trip and I’m already wearing the pin. So thoughtful and perfect. What a great way to start the day. 🧑‍🎄

Secret Santa gifts from Pepper Racoon! A bright yellow bandana decorated with red flowers and bees AND a rūrū (morepork in English, a wee owl) enamel pin. The note from Santa says for all the fine work you do. So sweet!

A closeup of the pin fixed to my blouse.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Dec 4

It arrived! So excited about this new book by @gingerhaze.bsky.social

ND Stevenson’s new book Scarlet Morning in a messy table. The cover is vibrant. Two characters are caught in fog, one holds a lamp aloft. Birds overhead, blood-red moon obscured by fog, vague ship masts tilt in the background.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Dec 1

Yay me! #SecretSantaAoNZ

An Aotearoa New Zealand Secret Santa 2025 badge declaring "Gift Sent". The image shows FoxySanta and elves in the basket of a hot air balloon. NinjakittyELF is the pilot.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Nov 26

Post your warning label.

A hiker standing on the far side of a Warning sign. It seems as if the person is standing near the edge of a cliff, with a cerulean ocean in the distance and, presumably, down below. The warning sign says "High cliffs present a significant fall hazard" An accomanying pictogram shows a crumbling overhang and a human figure who appears to be tipping forward with the failing cliff.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Nov 17

Some of my faves:

A photo of sparkly hair clips in a rainbow of colours. Flowers, a butterfly, and pink bunnies wearing flower hair clips.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Nov 11

Kahi (youngish fella), Willow (old lady), and a grandma spider who is not really a "pet" but I like having around all the same. #SecretSantaAoNZ

A grehound wearing a raincoat, standing in a green, green rugby field. The dog is not paying the least bit of attention to the photographer. Instead, it is staring intently at somebody it hopes will be a friend (or that it can chase). Even the other dog in the fuzzy distance is paying more attention to the photographer. Both are very good dogs.

A dog and their walker on a hot summer day. The grass is looking brownish and the sky is blazing blue. The dog's grey muzzle suggests she's an old lady, which she is. She still wants nothing more than to chase a ball as fast as she can, but she's also into cataloguing all of the smells these days.

Close-up photo of a black house spider, Badumna insignis, with a fly in her web. Good job spider. She's charcoal grey and this view of her underside reveals light grey, ragged stripes.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Nov 8

This is a trick question, right?

Screenshot of a “news” story posted on the RNZ app. The photo shows a person drinking what looks like a green smoothie while scrolling. Light streams through a window in the background. The caption asks: “Can you really talk to dead using AI?”

Christina,@christinahulbe· Nov 4

Wondering what the point of the footpath cleaning machine is. It’s like a Zamboni but for sidewalk grime, I suppose.

A paver footpath that has just been cleaned by a gas-powered sidewalk scrubbing machine. It’s like a Zamboni but for the footpath. The surface is dirty, with a few clean streaks. Perhaps the grime is now more evenly distributed.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Oct 22

Where would we *all* be without public sector workers? Paying people a fair wage and ensuring safe working conditions is a choice. It should be an easy one.

A poster that says "I support striking health care workers. Stand together for health. PSA." The text is bold, high-viz green on a fuzzy background image of marching workers in shades of purple.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jul 18

We need to talk. By which I mean yell at you about Hākoakoa 4 BOTY while trying to knock you off your feet and out of my territory.

A majestic brown skua soars across a grey sky. God smiles.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jul 4

What does it mean when the wee bus icon turns grey? Did the bus turn to ash? (Would explain a lot.)

A city street map showing a bus route and a bus icon representing a tracked bus. The bus is one stop away, where it has been for 3 minutes. Its encouraging blue colour has turned to grey. The whole scene looks dreary.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jul 2

Where I work, we fly flags for people, not politics.

A photo of the footpath, a building frontage, and a flagpole along SH1. From the flagpole, a trans pride flag flutters gayly on the breeze. The sky is dazzling blue. It's a great day.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 30

Burst pipe floods Dunedin office.

A close up picture of a mug on an oak desk. The desk looks damp and the mug is full of pens (for writing) and water (from the ceiling). Droplets of water are seen on a nearby speaker. The good news is that the water looks clear, so from the supply line not the foul line.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 29

Stunning day after the deluge. Streams rushing their way down the hill everywhere.

An old lady dog with her nose into the wind looks out over the amphitheatre like town of Ōtepoti Dunedin. The grass and flax in the foreground are green, the sky is brilliant blue, and rainwater has pooled in patches on a mountain bike track just down the hill from where she stands.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 20

It's #ShowYourStripes day. These are the Aotearoa New Zealand NIWA 7 Stations time series from 1912 to 2020 (when I asked a NIWA data guru for an update). Read the Alt text for more info.

A data plot with 7 bars, coloured in blue to red stripes arranged side-by-side like planks in a fence. Each stripe represents a year and the color of each stripe represents the difference between that year's mean annual temperature and the mean for the whole time series. Each bar represents a city in Aotearoa New Zealand: Auckland, Masterton, Wellington, Hokitika, Nelson, Lincoln, and Dunedin. The left sides of the bars are characterised by blue-tinted stripes (cooler than the long-term mean) and the right sides of the bars are characterised by red bars (warmer than the mean). Ripples of warmer and cooler sets of years across all of the bars represent normal climate variability. That variability is superimposed on a warming trend. A colourbar in the lower left shows that that the colours used to represent the temperature anomaly range from -1.5 C to +1.5C.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 19

Mānawatia a Matariki. It is a good morning for remembering, planning, and getting on with the day.

Wooden stars representing the Matariki constellation hang in a window at sunrise. The cloudy sky is a golden orange. Tī kōuka in the foreground and rolling green hills in the distance. It is a good morning for remembering and planning.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 6

The big #MWSecretSantaAoNZ reveal! Thank you so much Santa, this is lovely, touching, and such a good read on what would bring me joy. The coastline looks great! Thank you also for the fabric scraps, which are on point too :)

A cross-stitched Antarctica in shades of blue on a black background.

Christina,@christinahulbe· Jun 6

Santa!!! Amazing!! Not only is my Secret Santa crafty, they are good at suspense. Lots of layers to unwrap. Delightful. #MWSecretSantaAoNZ

An NZ post box in the act of opening. The swerving stripes on the box look like te ara ki te roto.

The card from my Secret Santa. They thank me for my mahi about glaciers, hope the gift is still intact (!) and share some fabric scraps.

An unwrapping scene. Slightly crinkled brown paper wrapping with a sticker that says “Thank you!” Some of the fabric scraps are visible.

A square craft-paper wrapped item, inside more wrapping that was inside more wrapping.

Christina,@christinahulbe· May 26

Santa!!! Package has arrived safe and sound, and we are now on our way home. I sprang for bus fare rather than making the box walk all that way. #MWSecretSantaAoNZ

A package wearing a scarf for warmth, sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus. Grey pavers and a tree and visual interest. Low light but not dark yet, suggestive of a winter evening.

A package on a bus seat. The scarf is off. The package has a window seat and appears to be enjoying the ride.

Christina,@christinahulbe· May 21

Well done, me. #MWSecretSantaAoNZ