Army Bay Beach, part one

It takes about an hour to drive to Army Bay Beach, but it's well worth it. It's worth it because it is protected from the westerly winds. It's on the Pacific side due north of Auckland and the surf is minimal most of the time. On either end of the sandy beach are unique rocky outcroppings with tide pools where all sorts of marine life can be seen up close. The parking lot is right above the beach, very convenient, that. It has restrooms! There are boaters, and fisherman, and shellfish gatherers. It has something for everyone I think. 

A couple of weeks ago, Allie suggested that we head up there. On the way, we picked up Subway sandwiches which we ate on the beach after we arrived.  

A couple of us had agendas for part of the day. I wanted sea water for another small batch of salt.  Allie wanted seaweed to mix with shredded paper she recycles for compost. And, as it turned out, the others brought home treasures as well. Grammy and Amiri picked clover for the guinea girls, and Arram brought home the stones and shells that he had used to produce a wonderful castle one the beach.  

Here we are relaxing after our meal. We were planning what to do first. 

We're looking north here. There are islands in the bay and more of the north island (the mainland if you can call it that) beyond them in the far distance. The seagulls hang around all day looking for handouts. Just before we left, Amiri indulged them with some Grain Waves and I got some good pictures.  The small blue plastic container  on the sand between the ladies contains the last few oatmeal raisin cookies that Grammy baked two days ago. 

This is looking to the left from our position (west). It's very low tide and you can see the rocks I mentioned.

And this is looking to the right. (east) Beyond that headland is the Army territory that the bay is named for. 

Soon, we had our plan. Allie and Amiri headed just down the beach to do a little quick tree climbing while Arram kicked his soccer ball around a bit. We all agreed though that after just a few minutes, we would head down the beach toward the rocks where we generally find giant snail shells. That would be in the direction of the picture just above.  

The tide is out and the rocks are nicely exposed. Between the rocks are numerous little channels that hold all sorts of critters. Who knows what we'll find today?

Here is Jeanne making her way over the rocks. Out beyond the end of the rocks is where some Maori teens harvested a sack of kina (sea urchins) one day.  Somebody else is out there today.

Allie has her collecting bucket, but she's not after critters, she has it for the seaweed she'll find.  She takes only the dead stuff that's been uprooted and tossed up on the beach. Note that there is someone sneaking up behind her.

Here is a nice find

Sometimes, it doesn't appear in these shots that there is any water. That starfish is under about an inch of water. We didn't find a single snail shell today. Rather disappointing.

In this next shot, I'm standing on the rocks and looking back toward the sandy beach. The steps from the car park are the centre of this beach. You can see that this is a popular place to lauch boats. The ramp up to the street starts just to the left of the big tree on the left side of this picture. The boaters have a car park of their own up there, sized to accommodate their trailers.  

I have many more pictures to show you of this beautiful place. With the next post, we are going to go down to the other end of the sandy beach and look at amazing rock formations and the gorgeous tidal pools they protect.   

We had sun but the temps were probably mid-fifties and it was of course breezy.

Before we leave today though, here are two last shots of activities I mentioned earlier. -djf

Every stone and shell was precious. They all came home with us.

Amiri has always been a climber. And an explorer. There he goes.