If you have been following our journey in home education, you will probably recall our fossil project a couple of months ago.
We had been talking about a field trip for sometime, and it all just came together, short notice, VERY early tide, slightly overcast and showery day… Loads of fun, and gratitude that we can give our children this kind of experience.
So what did we find? Where did we go? And “Where there any dinosaurs?!” you all cry out.
We went to Te Kohuroa, or Matheson’s Bay near Leigh, north of Auckland, on a hot tip from The Kiwi Fossil Hunter’s Handbook by Dr James Crampton. Turns out a friends’ mum is a local, so that was handy too.
And we found loads of these things… they look a lot like fossils don’t they, perhaps the plant kind, not so much dinosaurs, they looked tubular. I’m still to do a bit more research to be sure, so watch this space, and if you know what they are, please comment!
And these strange shapes which appeared to be part of the rock, not made by sea creatures.
Excitedly, the more we looked at the rocks, the more we saw, even these tiny little things.
We saw a many boulders with quartz, like this one, cracked in half…
Luna was delighted, and searched for crystals for ages, and picked up a couple of these “crystal ball rocks”.
Such a fun day, I cannot wait to do it again, and the kids loved it too, just a tad tired on the way home…
Along with the fossil hunting, the kids discovered many shells, remains of animals that inhabit the bay, they played and swam, made sand shapes and castles, climbed rocks, splashed, imagined, ate and drank, it really was a worthwhile adventure. So grateful to be able to spend most of the day with them, outside, learning, playing and living.
mermaids purse 