Easter in Paynesville

Following Sarah's wedding in South Australia, I planned to fly back to Hobart and spend Easter at home with the family. But at the suggestion of my good longtime friends, Mike & Helen Smith, chose instead to interrupt the journey by landing in Melbourne and spend the Easter with them at their delightful lakeside retreat in Gippsland at a place called Paynesville, where I had not been before. And what a good decision that turned out to be!

Paynesville is some three and half hours drive from Melbourne and is surrounded by the Gippsland Lakes on three sides. Its canals and inlets offer plentiful sheltered moorings for yachts and cruisers, and anglers, windsurfers, jet skiers, and water skiers flock to the town. With the weather bureau depicting good weather, many found their way to do just that over the Easter break.

Helen, Damien and I enjoyed the drive to Paynesville on Thursday and Mike and other guests joined us later in the day. It did not take long for me to put my walking shoes on and explore this delightful place. Helen & Mike's home is built on a canal development and was indeed most impressive. Actually, I was quite gobsmacked by the lovely position and the ambience of the place. The following is an aerial photo of the canal development with the Smith's property marked with an arrow in the top right of the image:

The views at ground level were also stunning:

Mike's pride and joy, his 41' boat, provides much pleasure for them and I was privileged to share this lovely boat with them over the weekend. As you can also see in the above, the weather was great, adding considerably to our weekend together.

Here is a photo of the house facing the canal:

And the neighbourhood:We have just cast off, setting sail for Duck Arm:Mike at the helm.

We enjoyed the sunny weather and each other's company. Brunch was generously provided at a little bay called Duck Arm.

With other friends and, of course, one of the stars -
Oscar, who looks longingly at Helen for his share.

It was just so peaceful. No wonder Mike & Helen & Damien love coming here:

The evening was most relaxed as we chatted, enjoyed good music and a succulent fillet steak- cooked on Mike's fantastic barbeque - a chimnea,

which is both an excellent BBQ and a great heater. It was very cozy sitting together near this unit, eating good food, drinking red wine and enjoying conversation.

Early morning walks were a special treat for me and Paynesville laid it on for me. The reflections and scenery was a pleasure to walk through as the following pics show:

These photos were from around Sunset Bay, but I think
'Sunrise Bay' would have been more fitting on this day!I love the above shot. It depicts very much how I felt personally about Easter and the spiritual meaning of a new day - new life. It was appropriate to be in a reflective mood. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Closer to home, the reflections in the early morning in the canals
were well worth another couple of shots:A visit to Box Creek was also on the agenda, and once again, it was one of those idyllic anchorages where we just 'chilled' out:

On our way back from Box Creek, the sky was spectacular,
as the following image shows (it does no do justice to the actual sky):Nearer to Paynesville, we passed this delightful Ketch in full sail:Easter Sunday was another brilliant day and it wasn't too difficult to soak up
the sights in the next photo:We returned to Duck Arm for a final anchor and were well
rewarded with the following sunset.Is it any wonder we were reluctant to lift anchor and go home?

A wonderful weekend with wonderful people, great music, good conversation, excellent wine and food. There was only one thing missing!