South end of Muriwai

It's time to leave the cave and look for more adventures. Arram reports that crabs have been very scarce so far, in fact, nonexistent. That's not too surprising. Crabs love mud and Muriwai is not a muddy place. We'll keep our fingers crossed that maybe we'll find some crabs under the rocks we'll soon reach. 

We had just started our hike to the south end of the beach when I came across this lady marking in the sand. She is a sand artist. She said that she and her partner were planning to make a labyrinth. I'll check back later and see how it turns out...

There is another smaller rock formation above the car park. This one is much larger. 

The family has outdistanced me. They are almost to the south end. Look at the layers of rock. The largest boulder visible on the left side and many of the smaller ones are all pillow lava.

If you're interested, here is a link to an explanation of pillow lava. Who knew?

This site also has a much better picture of the cliff face that I showed you one picture above. 

https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/pillow-talk/

Lookin' for those elusive crabs...

Despite Arram's efforts, and those of the entire crab-hunting team, no living specimens were found. 

Here are some videos of the area...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2pxi__-7qU&feature=youtu.be

This next video shows a really tiny water fall Jeanne showed me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvnGUcV6PWA&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgTFtajvIw&feature=youtu.be

There are some very narrow beaches (sandy) up there past those rocks. If I was 25 again, I'd have scaled the rock field to explore them. As it is though, that sort of thing is beyond me. 

I haven't adjusted the color. It's really that bright a green. 

I like this bit of cliff face. Just above the nearly horizontal crack line, on the lower right half of the picture, I can imagine small human-looking figures emerging from the rock. They make me think of the statues of saints I have seen in cathedrals in Europe. I can visualise larger statues in these grotto-like openings. The small picture below gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. 

  What do you see from your perches on the pillow?  "Goompa, (Arram coined a new term for grandpa) look up above the cliff."

As the afternoon wore on, many more surfers arrived to replace those coming out. 

It's lunch time. We have an ideal view. Allie has some chairs set up for Jeanne and I and the chilly bin holds our Subways. 

Food, water, and rest. Just what we all needed. 

Here is the product of the sand artists' creativity.  

The next post will take you to the gannet nesting rocks and I'll take a nostalgic look at a couple of places along the way.      -djf