We explored Te Waewae Bay today. The gales had stopped and we expected the sea to be calmer…WRONG!

We stopped at Riverton firstly and treated ourselves to breakfast. Then we hit the coast and were amazed that the sea was even wilder than yesterday. The tide was really high and the waves were huge.

I wanted to search Gemstone Beach as I figured with the storm, gems would be washed up maybe. Well walking, we battled our way down the small cove. The sea was coming in quickly so we had to retreat to the edge of the sand near the sandstone embankments. We discovered that the stones were embedded into the bank and were washed out from there by the sea. I picked up a few stones but I don’t think they are valuable! It was quite scary near the sea.

We went to Monkey Island and with the high tide it was completely cut off and looked so different from the scene we saw yesterday at low tide.

Next stop was McCracken’s Rest. The sea was wild and impressive and the wind very strong. The trees all along this road are bent right over showing the effect of the prevailing wind.

We drove to Cosy Nook. Here we took fabulous photos of the waves crashing on the rocks. Brilliant fun!

We went back to Riverton Rocks to a café over looking the sea and watched the surfers, while eating puddings with icecream, yummy

At Riverton we went to the beach at the head of the river and found the origins of the town.

We move on tomorrow to Fjordland so exciting!!