Iveagh Bay, Lake Brunner

What a blissful holiday spot it is here at Iveagh Bay right by Lake Brunner. Despite it raining all night and continuing throughout this morning, making a very grey picture of the lake and sky from our back window, I still enjoyed having the good downpour. Time to catch up on reading the last couple of Listeners and doing some puzzles!

The other 12 campers departed at some point during the day but they have now been replaced by a similar number - mostly the dreaded "sliders" but to be honest they didn't bother us last night.

View through our back window before the sun came out. 

What a difference!!

As predicted, after lunch, the skies cleared and the sun came out - not too hot, just pleasant - unlike the east coast and the North Island where they are suffering a heat wave right now.

It's got to be the first one!

Good timing for us to set off on the 3 hour Ara O Te Kinga track to the viewpoints overlooking Lake Brunner with it starting right behind our bus.

Careful!

Nice to be in the
bush after the rain with the foliage all wet and glistening and the dappled sunlight. It was damp underfoot but we could manoeuvre around all the extra wet spots without a problem arriving at the first viewpoint after about 20 minutes. From here we had a good view of just part of the lake.

Shortly, however, there was a sign warning that the track ahead was rough and muddy. We decided to continue on but didn't get far before a quagmire appeared in front of us which we would have been ankle deep in for quite a few strides, there being no way round, so at this point it was clear we should turn around.
So our 3 hour walk was only a 3/4 hour stroll but that gave us plenty of time to have a swim in the lake on our return - a refreshing dip and not too cold at all.

It's nice once you're in!

We have had dinner and Len is doing a spot of fishing just round the corner of the lake - I can't see him from here and no trout have appeared either! I am being constantly bitten by sandflies and lost this whole blog when I swiped at one sitting on my phone half an hour ago causing a rewrite. They are driving me mad!

Whoops, I spoke too soon about not seeing any fish - Len has just arrived back with a beautiful brown trout!

Beautiful looking and beautiful eating too.