June 1

There is something very depressing about hitting June and waking up with numb, frozen fingers and toes. Perhaps living in one hemisphere for your whole life trains you to have certain expectations about weather, even when logically you know it is the opposite. But, let me just say, winter is just as cold in June as it is in December and infinitely more disheartening.

I was barely cheered by the chance to pretend to be a mermaid in from of the giant paua shell in Riverton.

However, searching for paua and mussels on Monkey Island and gemstones at Gemstone Beach did the trick, especially when the sun came out later in the afternoon. Gemstone Beach featured a house carved out of the sandstone cliff with windows and all.

Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to find any treasure. (The beach is known for garnets that appear as the sand erodes away.)

We finished our day at Lake Monowai, in Fiordland National Park. We camped by a crystal clear lake with the sun shining and the snowy Southern Alps in the distance.