Sunrise in Kaukapakapa

This morning I woke up, as I often do here in New Zealand, a few minutes before sunrise. I lay in bed a while, thinking my last thoughts about the weird dream I had just had and now can’t remember, then climbed down out of my bunk bed and put on a long sleeve shirt and beanie. I slipped on my Keens, which were still soggy from the days before when I worked outside in the rain, and began walking up the hill from the house where I am staying. As I got higher up, I could see more and more of the paddocks below me, all filled with cows and sheep eating dew-covered grass. Beginning at the horizon, I could see some towering clouds. They were raining on the distance, and so formed a thick column of dark grey with blossoming white cumulus white tops above them. The whole mass of vapor soaked up the sunrise in a gauzy way. What would be a blue sky by the time I reached the top of the hill was pink and yellow.