A day out of the box

Today was a good day; the partial proof of which is that I took nearly 200 photos (not all of them good photos, mind you, but all of them of things worth trying to photograph).

It began with sunrise. One of the good things about winter is that sunrise doesn’t happen until after 7:30, which is a very civilised time for sunrise. This meant that I had time to shower before stepping down onto the beach (well, not quite one step … maybe 30 steps) to add another photo of the Hazards to my collection.

The day was full of glorious promise, with mostly clear skies. Realising that I might not be able to persuade Mum to go sea-kayaking (whereas I was more confident of Dad) I went for the “scenic flight” alternative instead. Little more than half an hour later we’d booked, driven to the airstrip, and chosen to do a flight over the whole of Freycinet and down to Maria Island as well (Maria Island is one of my favourite places on the entire planet, and Mum and Dad had their honeymoon there). I suspect we may well have been the only flight for the day: the long weekend holiday is over, and things get very quiet in the winter for places like Freycinet (there’s a line from a Chris de Burgh song that goes “There’s nothing quite like an out of season holiday town in the rain” … not that it was raining today). It was, however, the sort of day which belied its winter status and had to be enjoyed, and enjoy it we did. The scenery was spectacular. I love seeing maps come to life when you fly over land, and the Freycinet Peninsula and Maria Island have some dramatic features that are really quite awe-inspiring.

That’s Mum and Dad in the back seat of the plane as we waited for the engine to warm up (no quick get aways with this plane!).

In the shot below you can see the east side of Wineglass Bay with the Hazards range to the north (right).

Although Wineglass Bay is famous, I think the isthmus on Maria Island (seen in the photo below) is even more wineglass-like. It lacks the drama of the peaks immediately behind it but the neck is narrower and the beaches longer. It’s lack of fame is probably due to the fact that it’s not quite as accessible, being (a) on an island and (b) a day’s walk from the ferry landing.

View of Darlington, the main settlement on Maria Island (permanent population = maybe 10 people) comprising mostly historical buildings, with a view of Bishop and Clerk, the craggy peaks in the background. I spent a summer here as a ranger naturalist many moons ago and absolutely loved it, and the first ever Scout camp I ran as a newly transformed Scout leader (I used to work with the younger Cub Scout age group) was also here and a memorably successful occasion.

All the expected flaws from shooting out of a plane window directly into the sun are present here, but it’s still pretty spectacular.

Hazards Beach on the west side of Wineglass Bay looking south.

I took far more photos than I have shown here, but these give you some indication of what we saw and what kind of a magical morning we had.

The excellence of the day did not stop there, however. Having landed safely we headed out to Friendly Beaches, with their bright white sand, and clear blue water, and where there might have been 6 people in total for a brief while but mostly it was only the three of us (those readers who think this location bears a strong resemblance to 5 Mile Beach on Wilson’s Promontory would be right, not least because the granite is the same, and the coastal vegetation very similar). I took lots of photos of waves and rocks and sun and beachy things, more for the fun of taking than of any real expectation that I was going to end up with anything stunning photographically (except insofar as the landscape was intrinsically stunning).

We then headed up to Bicheno for a late scratch lunch, where the real treat was watching a sea eagle make forays from a nearby rock. My zoom lens wasn’t entirely up to the task, and the photo below is cropped and enlarged as big as it will reasonably go, but it was a joy to watch it. We got to see it again later in the day when we climbed to the lookouts on a nearby steep hill. What’s more, we had another close encounter with a different bird of prey as we drove home (although we’re still debating what, exactly, it was).

The day’s final major foray was to the Apsley Waterhole, just north of Bicheno, which involved a short stroll to a large swimming hole on a river. It was very peaceful here.

And on the way back to our accommodation we were treated to a lovely sunset, complete with silhouetted swans.

So, a day out of the box, I think … with one more wave for good measure!