From frowns to frolics

I really thought that today it would be tears before bedtime! 

Why? Well, we awoke to thick mist. No wonderful views from our bedroom. No glorious sunshine. No chorus of: 'Oh, what a beautiful morning'! Couldn't even see the sheep in the field next to us! 

What now? We've come halfway round the world just to see mist! 

Anyway, had a lovely continental breakfast (no pictures - they're banned) (seems I go on too much about food) and chatted to Lynne, who's going to cook a leg of lamb for supper, with garlic and rosemary, fresh dug potatoes and broad beans from the garden - whoops, sorry, I'm off on the food trail again! By which time the sun had started to burn off the clouds. So, off to Manapouri. 

Stopped at the roadside at the first sighting of water. 

We had intended to walk part of the Kepler track to Shallow Bay, however, a land slip meant that a diversion was in place and we didn't fancy scrambling round it. So we returned to Frasers Beach where we stopped for a sandwich lunch. 

Even though it's the last day of the school holidays, still no one about. 

This was our lunchtime view. 

We then set off to walk to Pearl Harbour, a short walk through pleasant woodland. 

The views across the lake are quite special. 

Just to prove that it is all smiles and no tears:- 

A glorious afternoon. Even more glorious is that we have booked a day trip to Doubtful Sound tomorrow. This is part boat, part coach, part boat again, on a journey through the Fiordland National Park. 

Driving back home we took a picture of where we think home is at the moment. 

In the middle of the photo there is a dip in the horizon - we are somewhere right out there, miles from anywhere. Believe me, it's heaven!