January 6, 2024 Waikuku Beach (Day 101)
Emphasis on the ‘Beach’ part of Waikuku Beach, the small community north of Christchurch where we are staying. We finally had time and fairly decent weather to venture out the back of the B&B, over the small dunes to walk on the beach of Pegasus Bay looking east over the South Pacific Ocean.
On our walk we passed by a narrow section of the beach staffed by lifeguards with over a dozen surfers practicing on the small waves. Set back in the dune is a building, the Waikuku Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. Other than that section the long, long beach was fairly deserted.
Among the few rocks and shells at the water line we found a few thumb sized purple blobs with air balloons partially embedded in the sand.
With some research I found out to NOT touch them! They are Bluebottle Jellyfish, the southern hemisphere specie of the Portuguese Man’o’war found in the northern hemisphere. A recent influx of these stinging jellyfish have been washing up on NZ beaches and causing some problems. All the surfers were wearing wetsuits which may help them avoid the stings of the small jellyfish.
We left the beach and headed to Rangiora, the biggest, closest town for shopping. We picked up bus cards for the Christchurch metro system and outfitted Robert with some new hiking shoes and did a little exploring of the area. We returned to our B&B and grilled up a great lamb/potato/veggie/salad dinner, finished off with grilled apricots we picked fresh off our host’s tree in the garden! We walked off our dinner on the trail along the estuary out the front of the B&B.
Pampas grass grows on the dikes between the estuary and the farm paddocks.
We couldn’t tell if the tide was coming in or going out from the flow of water through the estuary.
The small boat seems to be a piece of artwork moored in the tidal flat. A signboard indicates that this estuary is home to a diversity of shorebirds! We’ll have to be on the lookout!
January 16th, 2024 at 1:57 am
Such wonderful photos!! A beautiful area to stroll through and the changing sunset hours adds to the beautiful colours
January 19th, 2024 at 11:48 pm
Yes, the light was awesome that evening! But you probably see that all the time!