Our first stop was at a cafe in St. Arnaud, where we sat outside in the somewhat crisp morning air and enjoyed the mountain vistas.
Once fortified with caffeine, we headed down to Lake Rotoiti, which is less than 1 Km from St. Arnaud. The lake is home to a native eel which is protected and seems to be flourishing in Lake Rotoiti. Standing on the dock we saw eels, a trout, ducks and a black swan.
After taking in the views from the dock, we set off on a two hour walk to West Bay and back, which we accomplished in an hour and twenty minutes. This prompted Marlene to suggest that perhaps we could walk around the lake. We discovered that we cannot walk right around the lake, but we can get a water taxi to the far end of the lake and walk back down the East side. It seems that this could be in the plan for next week.
The walk gave us an appetite and we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the campground kitchen, trying to avoid the voracious sand flies (a small black fly) which were abundant near the dock. We shared the kitchen with a young Norwegian guy who was organizing his food before setting out on a nine day solo camping expedition in the surrounding mountains.
The day was still young, and the sun still shining, so we headed to Lake Rotoroa, another picturesque lake within the national park. But it seems that the sand flies had heard that we were coming, and sent a large contingent to greet us, making life quite unpleasant. So we took a few quick photos of the lake, and scrambled back into the protection of the car. Even a car without air conditioning was better than facing the onslaught of the sand flies.
We encountered a heavy rain shower on the trip home, grateful that it had not spoiled our time in the national park.
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