A love letter to: Lake Hawea

Beautiful Lake Hawea, near Wanaka. Photo / iStock

Singer/songwriter Anna van Riel pens an ode to her favourite spot.

Golden days, warm summer light
Moonshine on the lake at night
Roadsides glow with St Johns Wort
Roadkill treasures for the hawk

I lie on you, your pebbly shore
And wonder, could I ask for more?
A Tuscan heat that warms me through
In summer I'm in love with you

Harvest brings its giddy lust
Vibrant season, rosy dusk
Your soil filled will abundant strain
Yet as you chill, my love will wane

Your colours whip and slap my face
Then disappear without a trace
I gather up all I can savour
The last of autumn's pungent flavour

With fitful winds and granite skies
You steal the warmth out of my eyes
My aching joints try to remember
As to winter, I surrender

You taunt me with your ebb and flow
Your cold and warm, your high and low
Down winter valleys, I'm a stranger
Yet so seduced upon your ranges.

I've tried in vain to run away
To other lands, but couldn't stay
All sweet lovers, yes it's true
But none of them as sweet as you.

There are days I wonder how
Our love has lasted up till now
And as if proof, against my will
You burst out with a daffodil
I spring into your fragrant arms
Again fall for your heady charms
Broad beans, roses, scarlet runner
All sultry promises of summer

Once again you've won me over
My moody, all-consuming lover
And though you break me half the year,
You'll always be the one, Hawea

Anna van Riel is a finalist in the 2016 Children's Music Awards for Apra Best Children's Music Song and Recorded Music NZ Best Children's Music Album.