Autumn and Rainbows

From Takaka, Telegraph foreign correspondent Peter Foster writes a weekly blog on life in the small South Island town, population: 1,182. Foster was the Telegraph’s South Asia Correspondent for four years until January 2008 when he moved to live at the bottom of the world with his wife and three small children. This week, “autumn quite suddenly arrived in Golden Bay”. “The trees, the livestock, the waves and rocks all throw long, low shadows … It’s only early afternoon, but the light is already fading and next door have fired up their ‘burner’ so the garden hangs with the sweet smell of wood-smoke.” Foster marvels New Zealand rainbows, “fairy-tale toadstools” and bakes a steak and mushroom pie.