Yesterday afternoon (bank holiday Monday), my friends and I went for some good old fashioned beach therapy. We walked along Karekare, another of our wild West Coast black sand beaches. (Karekare was the location for scenes in Jane Campion’s Oscar winning film The Piano.)

As we turned left and headed south, the beach just swept open. It felt like we had the whole world to ourselves.

I can’t walk on a beach with out collecting a few little treasures along the way: a tiny purple shell, a yellow kowhai seed, the spiral from inside a deep sea squid, and a white seabird feather.



We came across the sad sight of a magnificent albatross lying dead on its back. You can’t really tell from the picture how big it was. Its beak was as long as my hand. And the wings! I just read that albatrosses fly an estimated 200,000 km (about 125,000 miles) per year. Wow.

As we returned to the car park, smoke from a bonfire was rising between the bush covered hills…

…and the sun was setting into the sea.

We left feeling happy and rejuvenated.