We were enjoying our morning latte and listening to the sound of the surf outside our patio window when an email arrived in my inbox. It was from our snowplow company notifying us that they would be sending the tractors out later today because we were expecting another 10 – 15 cm of snow. Then I realized we only had another four days before we would be leaving this, for that.

After a leisurely morning, we walked along the waterfront to enjoy the sun and to check out places for dinner tonight. As we walked, Jan spotted a fairy house in a tree by the sidewalk.

Later, when we were feeling a bit peckish, we ducked into a waterfront cafe for couveture, beef carpaccio salad (the beef carpaccio in New Zealand is unlike any I’ve ever had before, and it is amazing) and a glass of NZ Rose. We started joking about the snowplow email we had received, and before we knew it, we were checking NZ accommodations for next year.

After lunch we changed into our bathing suits and headed for the beach (yet again).

New Zealand beaches are kinda the same, and yet they are all different. This beach had more shells than all the previous beaches combined. And the seabirds loved it – they had a buffet laid out for them and they were taking advantage of it.

You could see them probing for lunch.

And when they found something, all their friends wanted a piece of the action.

On most beaches, all that you see is one half of the shell, but here, it’s clear the shells have been recently opened by the seabirds. This picture shows a bunch of freshly opened shells.

There were so many shells of all types that I may go into more detail on a future post. But for today, I’ll end with this picture that seems to show a bunch of shells cemented together. Interesting.

Tomorrow we are on the move again, heading across the Coromandel to the west side. We’ll see what we find there.