I know it’s obvious, but sea stars are some of my favourite animals.

So while Luna was after as many green lipped mussels she could cram into her hat, I was oooh-ing and aaaah-ing about some stunning sea stars.

Look how many they are?  They were just amazing, lots of little (and *cough* big) getting up close with these babies.  Each was unique, their colours so varied.  They felt like jeweled reptiles to touch, and I remembered what a deadly predator they are, exuding their stomachs onto their victim, then slowly digesting them…  I’m glad I’m not a mollusc.

This one was mauve!

So many, oozing and squeezing into the rocks.

Really, there is so much to explore and see at the beach.  A good day at Piha is completely exhausting for us all, clean water and life in and around the rocks.

A bit too wild for swimming in the sea for the little ones, though we found a perfect tidal pool, complete with tiny fish.

Luna is really keen on green lipped mussels just now, and she was bagging any she could find.  After a converstation about only taking empties with us, and remembering that there was an animal inside the shells, we reduced the risk of finding smelly shells in the back yard.

And limpets!  Luna found these ones.

Beautiful day.

Watching the waves.

Sand and space.

Happy new year!

You might have been following what has been called our worst maritime disaster, the container ship MV Rena ran aground in October, resutling in oil slicks, damage to marine life debris washing up on beaches..

A couple of days ago the ship broke apart, and there were reports of containers washing up on Waihi Beach.  We were staying not far off so it was something to see.  See that pile up there ^ bits of wood, a sack of milk powder and sachets of instant rice, gross!  The sack of milk powder is covered in oil, on such a pristine beach, brought me to tears.  The scale of pollution was overwhelming.

The next day we were heading home so stopped off to see how things were going..  I was very impressed to see the clean up was thorough.  The thing is, I wanted to help, with two littlees in tow, it was not practical, nor did I have any gloves, or somewhere to put the stuff!  It went from this:

to this

and this

to this

Hard to believe it was so long ago now, and we are seeing wash up and pollution as far north as Waihi Beach, and dissapointing to hear that the ship is still leaking oil.

Winter days on the west coast a lovely, we had a crisp clear day, after an icy start!

Spirula shell with tiny goose barnacles.

Looking up towards the dunes reminded me of some vast (yet miniature) archaeological site.

Watch out!

Beautiful.

Luna’s really into organising sticks.

I had an art teacher talk to me about the limitless greys you can see in the clouds.  This was during a still life painting we worked with a purely black and white palette.

Yesterday, I recalled this conversation after I came upon this dead gull on the beach.  I was quite dried and preserved and the feathers were an amazing variety of silvers and greys.

Grey is probably one of those tricky hues to capture with a camera, but I had to try!

Reptilian claws…

There were many dead birds on the beach this day, and many more alive in the skies and on the water.

A stunning winter day at Muriwai today, the girls had a great time, it almost felt like summer.

Come and sit down!

Beautiful!  Isobel and Audrey love it.

Seaweed and sea shells.  Still pretty chilly in the shade.

For a day that started out like this

It was a great day for a winter beach wander.  One of the best things about Waterview is being minutes from Pt Chev, and the BEACH.  Not my pick for a swim, but plenty of shells and sand to get into and on you.

How lovely is this?  I left the washing in the machine and we took off, grabbed some sushi and got in the sand.

The water was so still.

Luna is into shells and wanted to make a sand castle, sand was collected from along the beach until we found the spot for the sand castle, then it was a long slow walk back collecting scallop shells…

Cool thing is she remembers many more shell names, and we’re able to do more with these finds, washing and learning about the animals.

I’m looking forward to spending more time investigating with her, we got out one of my shell books, and found pictures of what we found today.  Mostly scallops!

Such a fun excursion.

Black sand on the west coast is perfect for making sand sculptures.. I used to spend hours at the beach and have made my share of Sand Dragons, now I just try and get one made before Blake dances on it’s tail!

This lady is a bit rough!

I see the occasional Common Janthina shells washed up, but blue?  Plastic.  Don’t see so much on this coast.

Very striking.

Byssus threads on a mussel shell.

Autumn, again at Te Henga, so beautiful and fresh.  There these jellyfish that were like jewels in the sun.

Such a beautiful day!  Yesterday we found ourselves out on the East Coast before a wedding, we had a few hours to kill, so we headed out to the beach, Omana Regional Park this time…

In the carpark trying to get a little shade…

Oh and we had the best pizza I’ve had in years..  there’s a pizza place a few minutes drive up the road and they do a $5 pizza with one topping plus cheese, and oh will we be back!  Will do a beach mission followed by a couple of pizzas and maybe a glass of wine?  So, so good, go there!

Being a parent takes so much time and energy, and there seem to be endless programs you can, and probably *should* take your baby or child along to, the sooner the better apparently, it’s kind of bewildering.  I haven’t actually signed either of my kids up for anything, we’ve been along to some casual play groups, we have our weekly catch ups with my local La Leche League group and a couple of friends we see pretty regularly, but it’s all very informal.  The thing is we are actually really busy, despite doing ‘so little’.  Both Luna and Blake need a big afternoon nap, about two hours.. so we must do our activities in the morning, usually between 10-12.  And, between food preparation, the eating, the tidying up, and doing the washing, food shopping and errands.. there’s not much space.

I have included Luna in my day to day activities, from early on, and she has enjoyed it, all the normal activities are so very new and entertaining.  However as she grew older, she needed to climb and run and explore far more.  What has worked best for us is more flexibility, and more free play outdoors, the beach, the park, exploring the museum.  Always in the mornings of course, and we’re home (mostly) for lunch, stories and naps.  Fortunately I love going to the beach and have got the hang of going with both kids.

I think we’ve not needed any of the popular ‘educational’ toys and games around, with my focus being exploration and free play, drawing, gardening, working together, and lots of block towers..

At the moment Luna is loving tree climbing, and going to the beach is about details, and learning about being safe and confident in the water.  I have been really impressed by her ability to learn the different names of sea shells, fish and sea weeds, we talk about how they live and what they eat – or what eats them!  I enjoy it, and her world seems full of adventure and nature, which I want to keep up.  It’s tricky seeing that Blake gets enough sleep and plenty of opportunities to breastfeed too – he needs a slower pace and still is needing to be in arms or the sling.  Cramming too much into our days sometimes means he wants to be at the breast all night – which is exhausting!

This time of the year is a good time to visit the beach, there’s a feeling of change in the gusty wind, and days are starting to be shorter.  Autumn is approaching.  We took a trip out the Piha yesterday and although it started out looking like it would be a windy overcast day, by the time we arrived the sun was beating down, I realised I was totally over dressed, with a beret instead of a sunhat.

We have enjoyed some stormy weather this past week and so I was keen to explore the tide line and see what may have washed up.  The most noticeable thing was the the beach had changed considerably since my last visit, we headed to the northern end of the beach and found a stream had changed direction, cutting through the dune, and was swiftly making it’s way to the ocean.  The wind had also eroded away at shells and other debris on the beach so cool, I took a few snaps..

There were also plenty of sea jellies washed up, and washing up as we walked in the shallows, the occasional blue bottle is no surprise but we only came across these aurelia or petipeti sea jellies, which are quite harmless.