Moeraki Sunrise

Unlike me, I woke (well - the alarm woke me) at 5.00am and I was back down at the Boulders by 6.45am..........the first on the beach in darkness except for the light from last night's supermoon which by now, was heading back towards the western horizon.  It was beautiful - so serene, so peaceful, so perfect.  Time to think about the shots I wanted for this morning's sunrise.  I had the pick of every single Boulder if I wanted but unfortunately, as it was only an hour or so past high tide, most of them were out of my reach if I wanted to stay dry.  Still, plenty of opportunity.  Marcus from Minnesota arrived about 20 or so minutes after me then a third person then Susan from Christchurch and for long enough, it was just the four of us.  By the time the sun began to lighten things up a bit we were up to about six.  

Gorgeous though last night's supermoon on sunset was, I think I preferred this morning's shoot.  It felt so much more relaxed and calm.  It crossed my mind that it felt so much more positive too......greeting the sun as it gently light's up a new day for us rather than saying goodbye to the sun at the end of a day....welcoming the new, not hanging on to the old.  Having said that, I'm going to try the sunset thing again tonight as I wasn't all that impressed with the range of images I took last night.  

The decision to stay here another night was a very easy one to make and having made it, I walked down to where Yvonne, the host of this parking area lives, in the big red shed.  We actually ended up talking for about half an hour which was really nice.  The discussion was interrupted however when the local policeman in his big police car drove along the driveway to check out that all was well in the public/DoC parking area alongside.  On his return he stopped, wound down the window and asked Yvonne how the building was going (her and hubby are living the shed whilst their house is being built up on the hill behind).  "Do you want to go up and have a look?" asked Yvonne.  "Sure would like to" replied Mr Policeman.  "I'd drive you up there but David has taken my car somewhere."  "Never mind - hop in here and I'll drive you up" and with that, both Yvonne and I hopped into the police car and were driven 200m up the hill!  Yvonne loved showing us around the building which will be magnificent when it's finished.  Awesome though the house will be, it was beaten hands down by the views it has though.  What an amazing place to live, though I am assured it's very different in winter!