Today in the late afternoon we took off to the Southland coast for a break, just for a few hours. We stopped briefly in Fortrose and then drove on to our destination of Waipapa Point. There was a strong gusty wind at the coast making photography really difficult, rare lulls were only milliseconds in duration.
This is Toetoes Estuary at Fortrose. See the whitecaps on the water and the grasses bending toward me in the foreground, it was very windy! Compare this to my photos taken on a perfectly calm day in August 2018.
For those interested in wildlife – these are the species that you might encounter here. Click on the photo to enlarge
We drove on and hadn’t gone far from Fortrose before we found a long line of interesting old wind-battered macrocarpa trees alongside the road. There was a gap in the middle and this tree had been particularly hard hit by the gales. I loved the “bonsai” look. Click on the photo to enlarge
Nigel at our destination, Waipapa Point. Out of the frame to the right is a lighthouse, the object of our journey and the subject of a future post.
Text and photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2019)
Exploring Colour 
I would love to walk this beautiful beach and look for all the birds depicted on the sign, Liz.
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Ah yes, the Catlins would be just right for you Tanja. There are places in the Catlins (not this one), where the native bush comes right down to the beach. As you can imagine, if you wander around you’re likely to see all sorts of birds. Where we used to live at Papatowai there was all this plus a large river ran through to the sea with a big estuary as well, so with bush, beach and estuary there were lots of different species!
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It sounds like a piece of paradise, Liz.
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I love the way the wind has sculpted the macrocarpa trees.
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All the trees get bent out of shape and burnt with the salt!
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Poor trees! At least they look interesting!
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