Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Colours of the Coast

Sunday saw the mailleman & I deciding to take a trip North up the coast to the small township of Kaikoura. It's years since we have just gone for a drive for the sake of it.
In fact I may have commented that you know when middle age has snuck up & bit you on the butt, when you are free of kids & instead of planning a raging night out with booze & music - you plan a 'Sunday drive' instead! Oh my - we have become our parents! When did that happen?

Kaikoura is a town approximately 150 Kilometers(94 miles) North East of Christchurch. The trip itself involves quite a bit of hill driving & some pretty scenery. Unlike Christchurch the coast is rugged & rocky, with sea's that seem insistant on pounding the rocky shoreline & wearing it down even further. It's years since I have been there & often when I have passed through it's been grey & cloudy with a rough dark sea.
Sunday was an exception! Beautiful blue skies & a warm breeze. The light was amazing - & the both the skies & sea colour could change within a couple of miles of travel. Parts of the Kaikoura coast have mountains coming down to the roadside & this affects the light hugely.

Going over "The Hundalees"


Mountains to the left of us, Coastline to the right,
Here I am stuck in a tunnel with you...


Those wonderful worn rocks & Three "mine, mine, mine's"



Looking back across to the road & mountains



Towards Kaikoura



This shows just how changeable it was - only a couple of miles up the road from the last photo.



North of Kaikoura township



South Bay - Where all the whale watch boats leave from.


Head back home, through The Hundalees


A peek or a peak.



Towards dusk.

There are a few other close up photo's in the post below.

4 comments:

Mermaid Glass said...

OMG! My Sunday drives don't look anything like that! It's so beautiful. Thanks for sharing your wonderful pics.

angelinabeadalina said...

I like the macrocosm/microcosm feel to this pair of posts, Deb. The rock pools are in incredible little world of their own, tucked away amongst all that terrific ocean-meets-mountain landscape. I also laughed at the reference to the "mine, mine, mine's"! I don't know if people described them that way before the Finding Nemo movie, but I think it is a perfect characterization...and I laugh every time I think about it.


Those rock pools definitely look like fun. I can imagine spending hours in the sunshine hunting for all the different goodies in the rocks. What a terrific trip!

Genie Sea said...

I would have to drive for days to hit anything close to that splendidness! for the record, I would choose a drive like that over a party too :)

Thank you for taking us on the trip with you :)

Anonymous said...

Wow Deb, how amazingly beautiful! And such variation along the way, it's like the perfect Sunday drive :O)