… in magical Raglan. I am staying in our generous friends’ beautiful bach and sleeping in the upstairs bedroom with its breath-taking view. I haven’t been closing the curtains and awoke this morning to a stunning scene – grey-blue water rippling with the incoming tide, whirling sea birds and a pure white yacht circling the harbour. Today was the kind of calm, blue-sky, turquoise-sea day that made up all the summers of my childhood in my memory. I walked up from Manu Bay to the look-out point in Bryant reserve (you can see the edge of the platform in the pic above). I sat there so long and so quietly that the cicadas in the bush around me resumed their song. One even alighted on a blade of cutty grass right beside me. The sound of summer. It would have been perfect if I had walked back down to meet my beloved coming out of the water after an epic surf and we’d shared breakfast at the Shack in town. But I’m here without him alas. The Shack’s coffee didn’t disappoint though!