We started the day with a lazy morning, then finally made our way to the Te Papa museum of New Zealand.
One level was geologic - all the history of the formation of the islands and how they are changing. The next floor was biologic / horticulture - how different species had been introduced over time and their impact on the native life on the islands. The final level was anthropological / historic / political - exploring how the Maori people had come and their intereactions with the Europeans that followed them. Very well done. Lots of interactive exhibits. All with Maori and English languages signage.
Our afternoon was spent on the beach, hiking out to Sinclair point to see if we could spot some seals. It was a sunny day (about 70 degrees), with beautiful clear skies. I couldn't take enough pics, and the pics didn't really do it justice. It was a great afternoon!
The small crack in the shoreline in the distance was our destination today. 3 miles one way. Quite a good hike! Took us about 2 hours there and back. There was a lot of uneven ground. Loose rocks, loose pebbles, loose / deep sand. I'm going to feel this in the morning!
There were not a lot of flowers, but these caught my eye.
The tide was coming in as we started our walk. It came up quite a bit in the two hours that we were out. The debris line on the beach was pretty high, don't know if it was storm surge or the normal high tide.
We saw several large ships pass by while we were out, but it was not a super busy shipping channel (at least not this afternoon).
Wishing I were on a sailboat on the ocean. Here's dreaming...
At the end of our long walk, we decided to take off our shoes and wade in the incoming surf. The water was cold! And the black "sand" beach was more like black pebble beach. A bit hard on the feet, but it felt good to take our shoes off.
There was a rocky, potholed 'road' along the beach that some four wheel drive vehicles were driving. We opted not to put the rental cars through their paces this way. Probably a good choice.
Our goal was to make it to the seal beaches on Sinclair point. We spotted four seals while we were there (this was not a peak timej). Delaney's finger is pointing out one sunning on a rock. They looked like the rocks until they actually moved. Very hard to spot!
The day wouldn't be complete without looking for a geocache. Found it!
By the end of the afternoon, the cliffs were starting to offer some shade from the warm sun. This was appreciated.
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