Which way do you lean? Arachnophobe or Arachnophile?

I don't know what you think of spiders, although I suppose that a few of you are actually shuddering as you read this from the very mention of the creature, right?  Well, this post is about just a few of them that I've recently met here in New Zealand. 

What I'm going to show you are only pictures, okay?  No videos. No need to panic and do something crazy....like clicking out of my post.   

These spiders have been rather hard for me to find.  I did some reading about them and found that many are nocturnal. Since I'm not, that simply means that we have working different shifts and have therefore not run into each other.  

Recently, I felt the need to correct that.  While walking through Henderson Park, I came across a long fence in a shadowy area that was covered with webs. I started 'surfing', if I can call it that, the fence-wide web and I eventually discovered a few spiders, hiding under sections of that web.  I politely poked a couple of the webs with a little stick and the spiders got up out of bed to glare at me for a while.

Here are some shots of the stream I was following to the spider's fence. 

 

It's nice in here. Out of the hot sun, with a cooling breeze.  

February here is like August back home in Michigan. It can get hot.

It's the fence-wide web! There is some sun, it's true, but the trees will provide on-and-off shade all day long here. It must stay fairly cool and the webs themselves act like umbrellas at the beach.  

 

I think the jury is still out and deliberating about whether or not spiders are my friends. I  think their 'twelve good spiders and true' are having a hard time deciding if I'm worth being friends with.  After all, I come along and wake them up, poke at them with sticks, and subject all those eyes to bright flashes of light. Would you want to be friends with someone who did that to you?     

I don't know if you are thinking of these spiders as Arachne (Greek myth), Shelob (LOTR), Aragog (Harry Potter), Charlotte (Charlotte's Web),  or Itsy-bitsy (nursery rhyme), all names of spiders that I've run across, but that's up to you. I rather like the story of Arachne myself. She was a world-class weaver who turned out to be a little too good....

 

Spiders, whether you like them or not, were the world's first 3-d printers.  You have to be impressed with that.

So, there you have it.  Did you make it through without a panic attack?  I was careful to start you off with these very modest-sized specimens so as not to stress you too badly.  I'm told that there are some that live under porches here that are as big as my hand.  I'll give you fair warning if I photograph any of them. 

Truth be told though, I'm 70 now and I don't bend very well.  I doubt that I'll find myself under any porches.  Of course, if they hear about that stick incident today on the web from their little cousin on the fence, maybe some of those big ones will come looking for me. I'm glad at least that they're non-venomous.    -djf