Haibun for a Moment

From Pukawa I often take day trips into the Kaimanawas, a mountain range nearby created by tectonic uplift and covered by volcanic ash from past eruptions of Lake Taupo.   My favourite moments are emerging from the bush and, on reaching a summit, seeing the ranges beyond.  This haibun records those moments.

Your day brightens, as you emerge warm from the last of the stunted beech.  The sky is blue except for a few motionless clouds and your legs stretch upwards through the staircase of herbs to a slow spur.  Gullies pass and the valley falls away.  Your heart and lungs fall in with the rhythm of your legs and you soar.  Later the slope eases and the cairn appears.

From the summit
reaching ahead
the lilting hills 

        

Catherine in Kaimanawas - summit of Urchin