Chasing Rainbows                                            

29 August 2025 - Friday afternoon after a long week at school, I was ready to leave, but it had started raining.  Then it stopped.  I was going to head to town but spotted a rainbow over the harbour and decided to see if I could get a photo before it disappeared.  The scene grew more interesting as the tug Arihi was leading a ship up the channel and a squall was approaching from the opposite direction.  The ship, Angel Island, a bulk carrier which launched just this year, was coming from Portland Australia (AU PTJ), "one of Australia's busiest regional  ports," situated between Melbourne and Adelaide, to load logs at the Leith Berth.  Sitting on a beach chair at the end of the spit near the Otago Beach Club watching the Angel Island come in was Leonard Muir, a local ship watcher.  He knew all about the ship and the tugs which preceded and followed it.  As the ship came up past Ravensbourne, five or six intrepid or foolhardy youths in sculls headed out into the channel despite the threatening weather.  Soon scattered drops of rain started coming down.  I didn't have my jacket and it grew blustery; the rain started coming down a bit more.  I scrambled ineffectively to protect my camera with a flimsy plastic "poncho"—really just a very thin bit of plastic which was whipping around in the wind.  We retreated back up the spit to the cover of some trees, and a few minutes later the ship and the storm had passed, leaving some interesting puddles.
Detail.  
Angel Island coming in; raindrop streaks visible on some of the images.
Pollen on puddles after the rain.
Interesting effect of water under the bridge.
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