First Day of Summer

Here in NZ, the first day of Summer is December 1st.  (it's a little different here).

  I spent the day on a hike on a beach with the tramping club!
  The group was Astrid and Gonzalo- a couple from Argentina who have lived in NZ for 2.5 years now; Bruce (with the beard) who leads some trips with the tramping club, and Liz the leader of this trip.
  We had a great time!  It was so free-ing to get out of town and the weather was beautiful.

We hiked out to the end of the bluffs that you can see in the distance.

Astrid is holding a puau shell- kind of like abalone- people make objects and jewelry from the shells

I think this is limestone?  Soft stone that has patterns worn away into it.

More interesting geology- perfectly round rocks are formed in the cliff and then fall to the beach below- this is 1/2 of a round rock.  (apparently many can be seen south of Christchurch- the Moeraki Boulders)

Fur seal!
They were not shy, and they smelled terrible!
For all the pictures from the trip and a video of baby fur seal pups playing in a waterfall (!) see:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110664676456177862063/albums/5817266568707139089

We stayed in someone's holiday home (called "Bachs" here)- this is quite a common practice- here are two websites where you can do this:
http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz
http://www.bookabach.co.nz

It was $30 per person for the one we stayed at, and it was huge!  5 bedrooms, and a nice elevated deck with a view of the ocean.

Anyways, great weekend- really enjoyable.

EM DF