Hot again today.

At breakfast we were given yoghurt muesli fresh fruit juice from their fruit trees. Then a fab plate full of bacon eggs kiwi fruit potato cake shredded carrot (yes for brekkies!) and salad.

Toast and cake. Phew. They said but you are English the English like big breakfasts!

We ate it too!

We went along Golden Bay and stopped at a viewing place. It was a bit misty first thing.

We were going to see the beach with the caves pools and baby seals. The road changes to a dusty track and we followed this to the end where you park up. There is a campsite there and a cafe. We saw peacocks there.

You walk a long way through farmland and onto a huge sand dune. We walked up and down it was strenuous.

On the beach it was misty, that cooled down the temperature and was pleasant to walk in.

The tide was right out, we were told to go at low tide to see the pools and caves where the seals would be.

They were so cute and adorable. 4 babies were playing together in a pool. They are in a shadow so not sure if it is easy to see on my pics.

THEN A DRAMA STARTED

The mother seal appeared and made a terrible noise. One little seal came up to her to be fed.

She kept on calling. The other 3 came to her too. She didn’t like that and pushed them away. They were not her babies. Then a black swan got quite cross defending the area he was in.

The parent seal and the swan had a fight. The parent seal was separated from her baby by the angry swan. The seal got back to her pup and then to our distress pushed one of the other babies down into the water. The swan attacked it so it went back to the big seal who pushed it back again. It was sad to watch. The pup was being hurt by both. It managed to go back to the cave pool again to safety. Another huge seal appeared from the sea behind the swan it must have swum through the arched cave.

We left then but fascinating to watch them. Obviously not a fair world for baby seals!

The walk back up the dunes was tiring. We went to the next town along Collingwood. Again lots of new age /healing cafes a bit weird for us oldies.

It was in the 30*s centigrade and very hot. We stopped on the beach along from Collingwood. Not a soul in sight. I sat on the warm rocks sunbathing. Dad walked out towards the sea and saw the sea birds and pools. Loads of shells. The sand sparkles like it has specks of real gold in it.

Back at the b&b now until it gets cooler. I might write more later…