My little sister, Sandra, suffers being photographed while I mostly avoid it by being photographer however ... today, in the midst of photographing my sister's family, Katie-niece decided that there had to be photographs taken of the sisters who hadn't seen each other in so long.
We survived it together.
I woke early ... as always while back in New Zealand it seems ... and slipped out into the day before anyone else was awake. It's one of those things I used to do before leaving behind driving and beloved roads to known places.
There is no other road for me on a Dunedin blue-sky-summer-morning, it has to be the Otago Peninsula road and so I turned right and disappeared for a while.
It was bliss out there. The harbour was calm but the tide was out and so there was only one rowboat reflection. I'll have to go back before we leave ... I need one for the Belgian walls.
The weather folk tell me it was 17 celsius out there and I had taken a jersey but it didn't last and by the time I reached the Albatross Colony, I was all summer clothes and barefeet.
It's good to be back ... so good.
Life is like this when you spend time with Sandra, Tim, Katie and Georgia, Dave and Jude, Lara and Lewis ...
And it's all recorded because the Katie-Niece has a wonderful eye for photography and the sneaky presence of mind to capture life as it happens.
I woke from an anguished dream about working as a wedding photographer for a friend and experiencing complete and utter gear failure. My camera batteries ran out, the flash wasn't attached correctly, I had no memory card ... it was a horror of a nightmare and I woke in a terrible panic that I had missed everything important of the wedding.
I briefly caught up with family and friends in Belgium via Skype then ran out the door to the Botannical Gardens here in Dunedin. I was meeting with Nikki's exceptionally lovely family for a quick photography session. She's a much-loved friend of my sister's and so I knew it was going to be a pleasure to take some photographs, just for fun.
But this morning I realised that for all the lightness and joy in my posts about coming home there is the growing awareness that it's almost time to leave this country I love. Driving familiar city streets this morning left me wondering what it is that I want from my life ... maybe the weight of the nightmare was still there in my mind because it seemed like a heavy thought on such a beautiful morning.
You see I have devoured the air as we have wandered the South Island, overjoyed to be smelling the yellow lupin and the cabbage tree flowers, sniffing out and identifying the wet stone-scent of Fiordland, the intense forest-bouquet on the West Coast.
I have loved the food, I have loved the people, I am loving summer in this place that I know so exceptionally well. And is that the lure ... the seduction? The familiarity, after 10 years away from all that is known to me.
Driving the city streets today, I was wondering if Icould return to New Zealand ... the little island-continent out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of the world?
I think I need to go back to Europe now, revisit Genova because it gives me so much of what I require, check out Antwerp because I have this Belgian bloke who loves that city, maybe visit Paris on a day-trip once we recover financially ... just to explore what I need. And to try to understand what I would do if there were choices ... you know?
Meanwhile, my beautiful Katie-niece sat next to me as I sat here writing and downloading today's photoshoot. She photographed me at work ... so there you have it, a real-time photograph of the Di Creature.
I loved this place and was happy to find it on the way home today ...
The Southern Royal Albatross (Diomedea epomophora) is a large seabird from the albatross family. At an average wingspan of around 3 m (9.8 ft), it is the second largest albatross, behind the Wandering Albatross.
Today was all about catching up on an old friend from more than 26 years ago ... about wandering out on Otago Peninsula to visit the Albatross Colony ... about Allen's Beach, and about sunburn.
But we were so lucky, the albatross were out and about, and there is nothing quite like one of those enormously graceful creatures flying overhead. Even better, they were flying free out at Taioroa Head.
Tonight I've been unpacking, organising and repacking a lifetime of memories, trying to downsize it all down to an affordable small crate for Belgium. I am so very tired. It's been a huge and beautiful day.
