The Longest Day

Today is the longest day of the year here in New Zealand.  Dawn in Marlborough was at 5.46am with first light at 4.28am.  The sun is due to set at 8.57pm with last light being at 10.15pm. 
We had family staying overnight. Duncan, our youngest son, and fiancee Mei were en route from Nelson to Dunedin.  I did not see much of them last night as I was not home from a wedding photo shoot until after 9.30pm.  However they planned a very early start this morning and were out of bed and pottering in the kitchen even before the birds were awake.  Having not slept well in the overnight heat I gave in and rose around 5.30am.  So we spent a little time together before they set off.  
They phoned us from Christchurch.  They were visiting the “Red Zone” well known to the citizens of Christchurch.  This visit had a great impact on them both.  They felt saddened by the deserted houses, all boarded up, the desolation and the overgrown jungle of what were,  before the devastating earthquakes of February 2011, people’s gardens and parks and playing grounds…..  A community now gone forever.
My longest day image shows the Taylor River just above the concrete ford that crosses the river to the western bank.  The light was golden and the weather was already very warm even at the early hour… a harbinger of the hot nor-west day to follow.