On the way round the Banks Peninsula we stopped at Little River. There's a line of shops there, where we filled up Puff, and bought some splendid frittata and quiche for lunch. We ate at the lovely little picnic spot on the edge of Lake Forsyth. This widening of the river is caused by the amazing shingle barriers that the sea has built at Birdlings Flat.
On the lake are these birds, which we haven't identified yet. From a distance they look like big grebes, or maybe black swans. But their necks are too long for the grebes we know, and their bodies are too big. The necks are even long for swans and they are not black all over, showing greys and whites under their spread wings.
Sadly this lake is badly polluted by toxic algae blooms, so you cannot swim in it, nor allow your dog to do so. And you can't eat fish caught in it either, so goodness knows what that means for the birds.