Down Under

A change of pace and back to wonderful West Coast New Zealand. Kathleen found a friendly bird that kept  company as she was shooting this amazing location. The bird was very attentive and was all around her. As it turned out, the bird was more interested in the beach flies which are tasty eating that Kathleen had attracted!

The West Coast region reaches from Kahurrangi Point in the north to Awarua Point in the south, a distance of 600 km. To the west is the Tasman Sea (which like the Southern Ocean is known to be very rough, with 4 metre swells being common), and to the east are the Southern Alps. Much of the land is rugged, although there are coastal plains around which much of the population resides.

The West Coast was home to Maori, who valued it for the taongo of greenstone (pounamu) which was found there in abundance.

The West Coast was only occasionally visited by early Europeans until the discovery of gold near the Taramakau River in 1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau. By the end of the year there were an estimated 1800 prospectors on the West Coast, many of them around the Hokitika area, which, in 1866, became briefly the most populous settlement in New Zealand.

We looked but did not find any! www.kerstenbeck.com

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