We went away for the weekend, to a beautiful coastal area a few hours away from our town. It was great to be away for a couple of days and stay in a cosy little cabin by the beach.
We spent a day walking at Farewell Spit, the strip of land at the very top of the South Island of NZ, and built a shelter from driftwood and our jackets and ate lunch looking up at the nikau palms and across at the big ocean. I think we even had the entire beach to ourselves, from what we could tell.
On the way home, we stopped to watch a lone seal sunbathing on the sand, and explore an amazing cave (Ngarua Cave) filled with stalactites and stalacmites.
The sad thing is, I forgot to take my camera. But, I did bring this one shell back as a reminder, and this great old book about identifying shells for the kids: 'A Child's Book of Sea Shells' by William M. Hutchinson (1954). I love the illustrations, and it's nice to be able to learn the names of different sea creatures. The one in my hand is a mussel shell, destined for a life in the rock garden.
We spent a day walking at Farewell Spit, the strip of land at the very top of the South Island of NZ, and built a shelter from driftwood and our jackets and ate lunch looking up at the nikau palms and across at the big ocean. I think we even had the entire beach to ourselves, from what we could tell.
On the way home, we stopped to watch a lone seal sunbathing on the sand, and explore an amazing cave (Ngarua Cave) filled with stalactites and stalacmites.
The sad thing is, I forgot to take my camera. But, I did bring this one shell back as a reminder, and this great old book about identifying shells for the kids: 'A Child's Book of Sea Shells' by William M. Hutchinson (1954). I love the illustrations, and it's nice to be able to learn the names of different sea creatures. The one in my hand is a mussel shell, destined for a life in the rock garden.
