Long Beach

Slowly, we're trying to explore the all beaches around Waitati. Today after school we tried Long Beach. It took us a while to organize ourselves, throw a picnic together, and then drag the kids away from their respective playdates. But finally we were off. Fog keeps being a mystery to us here. The fog seems to hang low over the water and in the valleys of the mountains. But as soon as you get up higher, it's brilliant, bright, blue skies and sunny (except for when it does the opposite, and hugs the mountain tops....). So we set off for our beach adventure in clear weather, and as we descended steeply into the beach below, we hit a thick layer of soupy fog. Eerie and beautiful!

 

The kids dove right in, climbing rocks and digging sand holes. David and I explored, looking at the seabirds, and then settled in for our picnic dinner, on a blanket in the sand.

We were feeling pretty adventurous with our mid-week, deep fog, rising tide, evening picnic. But then we started to see much hardier New Zealanders emerging from the fog. There were intrepid rock climbers, belaying off the steep rock face to our left. There were hardy surfers, braving high surf and cold waters (but still at least in wetsuits). And then there were the rugged kiwi kids, jumping in and out of the waves, wearing almost no clothes at all, seemingly impervious to the cold. A hardy and adventurous group, the New Zealanders!!