The New Year

Sophia arrived in the evening of the eve of the New Year, and came to stay at my grandparents house for a few days. Exploring the local landscape together made me feel like I was on holiday in a foreign country, even though I had been coming to this place before I could even remember it.

It had been so long since I had last been here, so it was each of us who wondered what was down the dusty road on the left

or the path to the north

We made a landing on Observation Beach, named after the observatory set up there by Dumont D'Urville nearly 186 years ago to the day (16th January 1827), and I felt almost as if we were discovering this land for the first time.

When a storm blew through cutting the power, it provided a good excuse to play card games and scrabble in the candlelight.

And when the clear skies returned, the night shone brilliantly, filled with dust and light, meteors and satellites, whole worlds and us, just looking up

(from left: Matariki, Jupiter, Orion)