Not 24 hours previously I had bought myself a hat to protect myself from all that horrible melanoma producing sunlight but while perched on a rock taking this snap it succumbed to the clutches of wind and river and disappeared seawards. It was black and had the iconic New Zealand fern symbol emblazoned on it and just a few minutes earlier I had been proudly showing it off to an Australian family. They did not seem as impressed as I thought they would.