Rainy Day & Tina at the Movies

Sunday 30 March

After a generally sunny March, Sunday felt like autumn really had arrived. Rain pattered down on Banjo’s roof from the moment we woke so we hunkered down for the morning then went into town to see “Tina” at the cinema - what a beautiful and emotional movie.

In true Kiwi 2 degrees of separation style, I immediately spotted the nasty deputy head was played by one of our Pop-Up Globe faves, Jamie Irvine, and whilst I couldn't work out why "June" looked familiar, Louis realised it was Taylor Rogers who used to do Kids4Drama with Ella! The story was a beautiful, uplifting tale of strength and recovery from tragedy and grief, echoing the stories of many following the Christchurch quake - the themes of togetherness, support, love and kindness are universal and ones we all need to focus on more these days.

The rain had mostly died out by the time we emerged, sniffling gently and dabbing our eyes, and my Fitbit steps were minimal so back at Manapouri I took a long walk out to Pearl Harbour (not that one) & Fraser’s Beach while Louis had a siesta.

Loved the kiwi ingenuity of turning an old bath into a park bench, but less enamoured by the dodgy pier I spotted at Pearl Harbour which was a definite H&S concern!

Pearl Harbour (named in honour of the Hawaiian one, I believe) is a river port at the point where Lake Manapouri flows out into the lower section of the Waiau River - cruises leave here for Doubtful Sound, crossing the lake and then passengers are bussed over the hills to the Sound for their cruise. There are also crossings from here to various walking tracks - this area of Fiordland is awash with short and long hiking tracks that people come to from all over the world.

I followed the Old Coach Road back towards Manapouri for a while - passing through the southern beech woods by the lakeside. The fungi were in full glory - the fairytale toadstools popping up all over the place, and chunky marbled bracket fungi, as big as a dinner plate, protruding from mainly fallen or dead trees.

Lake Manapouri glowed a sheeny silver under the grey clouds as the sun tried to peep through, and as I rounded the corner by the outlet to the river, you could see how high its waters can flood - sweeping out the soil from under the beech tree roots.

Baked Brie with honey & rosemary for dinner, accompanied by BBQed crostini - yum! Bit of blogging for me and music for Louis before turning in as the temperature hit single digits.