The weather was a little rainy and cloudy - Dunedin seems to have its own weather system, though my personal theory is that, having built all this dour Scottish architecture, they then attracted dour Scottish weather to go with it. We drove out along the coast road, and then went uphill to Lanarch Castle. And uphill into the cloud cover, which got lower and lower (or we got higher and higher), and rainier and rainier, and the visibility got less and less...and we turned round and went back home again, and had lunch!
After lunch, we got back into the car, and went off in the opposite direction - into sunshine! And blue skies! And big wide views for miles and miles. Rob's mood improved noticeably with each moment. We went out to the Sinclair Wetlands, with the binoculars and the camera (my new one!) in the hope of seeing some local birds, and did. Fantails again, some really good views of Silvereyes, and also a grey Warbler, or Riroriro (you hear the song and know why that's the Maori name for it), as well as black swans again, scaup, mallards and barnacle geese. Or Canada geese - whichever one it is that has the black face with white cheek patches.
The views were open and lovely - New Zealand is the landscape that's in my heart, wide, wild and full of promise and adventure. The sun shone, though it wasn't very warm, and the air was full of birdsong and the occasional bleating of the sheep around the reserve. It reminded us both of Rye and the Romney Marsh in some ways - and then we'd look around at the totally different plants and birds, and remember that we really were on the other side of the world after all.
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