the best beach so far ?

we had our first encounter with dolphins today at a beach.  read on for the full exciting facts

a number of people have recommended we go to the beach at Tawharanui so we finally did it today.  it’s an hour’s scenic drive, with the last 15 minutes over ‘metal road’ which is just a rough gravel windy road.  we’ve been wondering why they call these ‘metal’ roads.  it’s apparently because the gravel chips are called ‘metal chips’.  so now we know.  although there’s an obvious follow up question to ask …

anyway, this place is a nature reserve.  think Dinton Pasture on natural organic super charged steroids and you get the idea.

it’s taken three stages to get the park up and running.  stage one was to create a massive fence round the protected area.  stage two was to eradicate all the predators in the park (rats, cats, weasels, hedgehogs etc) and once they were sure they were all gone, and couldn’t get in again, re-introduce native plants and animals to get the place going again.

we’ve arrived at stage 3 which means the park already contains kiwis and various other strange creatures.  the picture above is of a strange hippy like chap holding a kiwi

and you can really see that it’s working.  one little area of rocks was ropped off with a little sign saying it contained Nth Island Variable Oyster Catchers (which i think must have been named by a maths teacher).  We looked up above the sign and there was one sitting on a nest just to prove the sign was correct.

at the end of the beach was this little natural tunnel worn out by the sea crashing through the rocks

there was a smaller tunnel after this which the girls squeezed through.

anyway, we spent most of the day at the beach boogie boarding on the largest waves we’ve seen yet on the east coast.  there were some really nice metre high type ones which gave the kids and jane and i some thrills (yes, i went in again).  jane also got to road test her new wet suit.

however, the absolutely coolest thing of the day was seeing some actual dolphins come up and play with the boogie boards just a little further out than esther, jane and kezia.  Kezia thought she saw a fin a few minutes before the dolphins moved in, but jane dismissed it as her over-active imagination. 

And a few minutes later there were some big animals with fins playing with the group of boarders you can see in the middle of the photo above.  sadly it was also the first time i’ve left my big camera in the car since i didn’t want to get it sandy/wet as i was also going boogie boarding, so no photos of the beasts i’m afraid.

the dolphins (i think that’s what they were) circled about for around 5 minutes then did a few show off funky back flips (to reveal their white bellies) and splashed off round the coast.

there was a little information kiosk nearby which suggested they might be hector dolphins

all in all another fab day.  rain is forecast for tomorrow so we might have a quiet day tomorrow before a day trip to a bird island on Saturday and church/friends on Sunday. Then back to work for me.  boo hoo !

i had a really good evening last night catching up on the UK snow situation via BBC Radio Berkshire.  And thanks for the photos you’ve been sending of UK snow.  we’ve been really enjoying looking at them.

take care if you are in a slippery cold place