With wings spread wide.

The US registrar ended her attachment with us on Friday, and will return to her homeland and be closer to her family. Her partner has been a member of one of S’ poetry workshop groups. They came to lunch with us today at the beachhouse. It was a really nice interlude. 

I will miss her personally and professionally. It has been so good to have such a competent registrar in the unit; it helps all the others and the interns to see a younger person being so good at the job. 

And her partner fitted in well to the group, adding a very different style and being comfortable in the ethos of the group. 

After a restful mid afternoon, I decided to ‘chase’ the Takapu. At least four gannets were circling above the waters of Kawau Bay, and intermittently diving from a height at great speed into the water. I thought I could get closer if I was on the water’s edge, than up on the cliff.

And so it proved. Looking up, rather than across (or down), was better for photos, and so I got the main photo for today. Five minutes or so before it circled above me, it or one of the others dived into the water too fast for me, but I’m showing the water column sent up by its impact as an extra.