Beside the ubiquitous kikuyu and muehlenbeckia, there’s a lot of iceplant and lupin. Iceplant does well as a dune cover and it’s flaming magenta flowers are a feature up at Journey’s End on the Kaipara Harbour.
Lupin is a nitrogen fixer, and was extensively used by the forest service as a preparatory plant in the sand dunes prior to establishing pine forests, just north of here at Woodhill.
We sidle down the dune again. Up ahead a couple of 4WD vehicles are parked down on the beach. One belongs to the ranger and the other to a fisherman. The easterly offers a number of advantages to those trying to get their line out. This guy is using a kite. (A little later I spot him hauling in and releasing a seagull which has rashly seized the proffered bait.)
We head along the edge of the stream.
Alice checks it out for potability and seems satisfied.
And if you think I’m going to throw that for you to fetch you have another think coming
Out by the water’s edge are a huge flock of small seabirds. Terns, I think. Miranda gets out her camera, attaches the telephoto and goes to work.
These birds unlike many, seem totally unphased by human beings and Miranda is able to get remarkably close. I keep waiting for the big takeoff, but it just doesn’t happen.
She is in her element in situations like this
So is Alice, come to that. When it all boils down there are not many places left where a dog can execute an 80 metre doughnut at top speed. And there’s an added bonus if you come across a dead fish or bird to have a roll in.
The brisk easterly has set up some wonderful surf and the spindrift off the top is impressive,
We head back up to the 4WD access. Somebody has put in some very heavy thought here. There is a vehicle access, a pedestrian access and a horse access.
Life is complicated enough, it seems to me…..
As we hit the carpark, I am initially alarmed. Then I relax. It’s not our car.
Unfortunately, it is a feature of this area that stolen cars are brought out here and wrecked or driven onto the beach and abandoned to the tide. Even at the main carpark along the beach, burglary is a regular occurrence, though recent security changes there appear to be having an effect.
We make our way along the road a little to where our car is sitting at the start of the track. Not a great walk but a variation on the normal beach expedition and one you may well wish to explore.