NZ Red Admiral - Kahukura

The New Zealand Red Admiral (Vanessa gonerilla) is a butterfly that is endemic to New Zealand. The Māori name is kahukura which means red cloak.

Five of us paddled our kayaks from Cass Bay across Lyttelton Harbour this morning, around Quail Island to a beach on the south side of the harbour peninsula. It was fabulous basking in the warm spring sunshine, while further up the harbour towards the Heads dense fog was rolling in and covering the beach suburbs on the ocean side. Check out Ginger Nan's blip for a photo of the fog.

I saw this beautiful butterfly while we were having a cuppa on the beach and was delighted that it posed for me.