Silhouetted in the early evening light, a spider was perching by its web, woven between leaves of the golden sand sedge pingao (Ficinia spiralis), one of the dune grasses at Island Bay beach. The sky was clearing after the rain, the clouds parting, and the sea a soft blue. And looking across Island Bay towards Baring Head, there was a sight that is always magical to me - a rainbow...
I recall as a child memorising the sequence of colours, drawing the arc of a rainbow, being intrigued by the idea of a pot of gold at the end... then later, getting a sense of the complexity of light in the way that the colours are revealed by refraction - how I loved prisms! And later again, being fascinated by and struggling with the idea that light is a form of energy that moves in packets and waves (how can this be?). I also love the transience of the bright colours decorating the landscape, and the surprise of seeing a rainbow, even though it is associated with such a common event - rain!
Dwarfed by the spectacle two kayakers paddle towards the tip of Taputeranga, while (the ubiquitous) seagulls do their evening fly-past.
The island itself is lit by the rather golden evening light, the rainbow fades, and to the south more clouds seem to be amassing.