Rotarai

Another beautiful day and went off bright and early to do the Pupo hydro walk with Joe. This takes you high into the bush, all green and dank and dripping but spectacular.
In the afternoon Himself and I went to Rotarai - a massive estuary where the sea had disappeared and a myriad of long legged birds fed in the shallows. This was where the first settlers arrived in Golden Bay in 1842 - Ann and James Lovell and their infant daughter Mary Ann. Apparently relations with local Maori were good. A year later James was mining and another daughter, Mercy Ann was born. She was the first pakeha or white person to be born in Golden Bay. We had seen her grave a little earlier when we visited the cemetery. She lived to be 90. Astonishing really.
And thank you for all the love for a bouncing Esme and her shadow.