Art in the Sounds - A day at Lochimara Lodge

I'm so far behind all my photos and day trips it's not funny, but better late than never.  A year ago my friends Debbie and Sheila came down to do the St Clair half marathon - a run through the vineyards.  The day after we took the ferry to Lochimara Lodge to take a look at what they had to offer.  The weather wasn't looking promising as we left Picton, murky with the threat of rain...

The ferries were running to schedule, and to me looked like they were on ice, the water being so calm...

We arrived at Lochimara sometime about 10am.  It was quite cold, so once on land, we headed into the cafe for a hot chocolate.  For anyone wondering - they do a good hot chocolate, and have wonderful lunches.

I was intrigued by the lights inside the cafe. Pieced together by old computer chip boards, thought it would be the perfect present for any 'nerd' study (like me!) Couldn't be too hard to do surely?

This was our view while drinking our hot chocolate. Calm, beautiful green waters of the Marlborough Sounds...

After our warm up inside, it was time to go exploring and to take a look at some of the art. Debbie took charge of the map and we followed her blindly... First bit of art we saw was a rather nice sculpture of a sailing ship, perfectly placed...

Up the hill a bit and we found this gorgeous sculpture of a woman's face in wood..

However my eye caught this most cheeky fantail...

I willed it to land on the stump of wood, and it obliged. Deb and Sheila had to wait for me while I shot off several thousand photos of this one fantail. They were really patient, but I could tell they wanted to move on by the way they were back on the track when I was still in the field. I reluctantly left!

Another sculpture carved into wood in it's natural surroundings. Very cleverly done, and inspired by nature. Nature also adding it's unique touch.

I came across one of the locals. I know some people like this...

We found a beautiful couch all done in mosaics. I really liked this and could imagine one in my garden, out the back.

Sheila was a bit tired after the half marathon yesterday so took a quick nap...

More sculpture carved into the actual tree - stunning and one of my favourites...

Nature's Art....

And the famous face on the wall...

The people in the woods. I really liked the way this was done, and it certainly made our walk through the forest interesting...

Then Debbie found her place for her nana nap...

And Sheila decided to have one as well...

Back at the lodge, and refreshed after all the naps they had, Debbie and Sheila decided to go kayaking. As I had taken my role of photographer very seriously, I hadn't had a nap, so decided to rest on the jetty and mix with the local shags. Besides, cameras and water don't mix and I didn't want to take a chance.

Here they are, about to take off to the unknown. Kayaking here is included in the price of the ferry trip over, so well worth doing.

I was allowed to get up close and personal to Ms Shag, but if I overstepped my boundary and crept into her personal space, then I got nipped by the beak..

I found other interesting things from the jetty though with the nips got too hard...

Although she always managed to get the attention brought back on herself... What a star! The story here is that the shag is injured in some way and can't fend for itself any more, so relies on fish brought to the jetty by local fishermen.

We left Lochimara knowing we would be back, and headed back to Blenheim where I showed Debbie and Sheila some of the beautiful spots all in Autumn colours...

Then the view from the back of my place....

A great fun day out.