Lake Daniell

The lake on a misty morning. Beautiful. The only sounds were the almost silent lap of the water and the bird calls.

Well, those sounds and the voracious sucking of man-eating sandflies. For something so small they are seriously vicious beasties.

I wasn’t as stiff as I thought I’d be which was a bonus. We took it slowly this morning – there was no rush to get home. The weather wasn’t as nice today but it was pleasant to walk in – so little rain filtered through the tree cover that I didn’t need my jacket and my camera didn’t get particularly wet.

Lots more birds today – all yesterday’s ones but also SAW a kakariki and heard and then SAW a kaka. Wow! Brilliant. Unfortunately neither of them was photographable – too much leaf cover in the way, but wonderful to have seen anyway.

I held up pretty well I think – my first tramp since last April and I managed reasonable time with not too many sore muscles. Of course it probably helped that when we finished the walk we drove the few extra kilometres up to Maruia Springs and had a soak in the natural hot pools. Bliss.

Yesterday’s back blip, is here.