Daily Photo – Waipiata (4)

In the morning, breakfast was a generous affair of fruit, muesli, toast, coffee, and orange juice – the sort of spread that convinces you a second helping is simply good manners. After several rounds and feeling suitably fortified, I gathered my things and attempted a dignified exit, slipping quietly out the back door so as not to disturb the other guests. This worked perfectly for all of three seconds, until I tripped over a rubbish bin that clattered to the ground and promptly woke the neighbour’s dog, which then woke the rest of the neighbourhood. So much for subtlety.

The morning was cold, properly cold. Everything, and I do mean everything, was frozen solid. Since de-icing the car wasn’t going to be quick, I set off for a walk. Each step landed with a satisfying crunch on the frost, my breath hanging in the air like a thin city fog. Smoke curled lazily from a few nearby houses before dissolving into the washed-out colours of a Maniototo morning.

I’d been following a dirt road, but as the sun began rising over the hills I turned back toward the car, the new light dragging long shadows across the gravel roads and paddocks. I followed them for a while until I reached a frozen stream pressed against a fence line, glinting in the pale sun. I stood there for a moment, enjoying the quiet beauty of a world not quite awake, not yet anyway.