The Wild West

Everyone has been telling us we need to go see the black sand beaches of the west coast. Whereas there are zillions of beaches and bays and inlets along the east coast (Pacific Ocean side) of New Zealand's North Island, the west coast, along the Tasman Sea, isn't very accessable. We found, though, that we could reach one of the beaches on the west coast, Muriwai Beach, in only about 45 minutes from our flat. It's known for it's black sand, and it is perfectly black. Even beeing right there and looking at it, it's hard to believe it's sand and not asphalt.

The west coast is pretty rugged and not too many beaches, mostly cliffs. However, this beach stretched on forever, and is very wide. They say you can drive your car on the beach up to the next harbor, which is about 30 miles away. (We didn't do that) There were motorcycles, a dune buggy, horses, etc on the beach and in the dunes. We saw several people kite fishing. They actually have a kite attached to their fishing line that bobs the bait up and down in the water to attract the fish. Apparently, the fish weren't in the market for bobbers that day, as no one that we talked to had any luck that day.

Unlike other beaches we've been to, this one, aside from all the ripples and designs, was perfectly flat and clean. Hardly a shell. It made a great place for a group of little boys who played soccer, barefooted on the beach, all afternoon.

In addition to the black sand, the other thing Muriwai Beach is famous for is its gannet colony. Gannets are birds about the size of sea gulls, but much nicer. (I've found the gulls to be obnoxious, rude and ornery to each other!) The gannets perch on two big rock cliffs where no one can bother them.








They go to Australia part of the year, and then in July come back, meet up with their life-long mate again, make their nests, and raise their young, all on these two cliffs. They're very affectionate, and you can hear chorteling and watch them wrapping their necks around each other. A big bird hug, I guess. We spent a long time just watching them dance and hug.



The beach was fascinating to us. Wet or dry, the sand had patterns all over it. Some of it almost looked like a pattern woven into fabric.

A river emptied out into the ocean, and even under the shallow water of the river, the sand was patterned. The dark sand came up in a pattern and the lighter colored, almost gold, sand sunk to the bottom.

You can tell from this picture how broad the beach was. Between the gannet colony and the beach below was a rock outcropping. The entire surface of this rock was covered -no, not covered - encrusted with mussels. You couldn't walk without stepping on them, and amazingly, they didn't crunch! They're alive, because if you try to pry one loose, you can see it close up even tighter, but there's no way of prying it loose from the rock.

The little depressions in the rocks were full of life. Here were two starfish as big as dinner plates, and you can see the shells of the mussels all around them.

A closer look at the mussels. Kazillions of them, every size. This is what the surface of the rock looks like. Not a bare spot.

Most pools also had colorful sea urchens, along with the mussels.

When the tide came in, the water flowed way up the beach, around the rocks, and made a very pretty picture.

But then so did the sun on the water as it swirled around the rocks and up the beach.

We purposely went in the afternoon so that we could be there when the sun set, because they talk about the beautiful sunsets on the Tasman. There were alot of clouds and we weren't sure what kind of pictures we would get, but it was worth the wait to be there and see the day end.

Another great day that we could enjoy together in this beautiful land. And the surprize that I found waiting for me when I came back from a walk down the beach...