Sunday, March 11, 2012

A walk along the beach

It's only a month now until I leave on my trip, and I felt the need to have a good dose of a Kiwi beach walk today. It was a lovely calm, warm morning and Himatangi Beach was at its glorious best.


It's a long, flat beach, and the tide was fairly far out when I arrived, so there was lots of firm sand to walk along.


I meandered for about an hour and a half, paddling my feet in the shallow wavelets, greeting the occasional fisherman, dog-walker or jogger as we passed each other. And I enjoyed noticing the 'little things' on the sand...


 ...the flotsam and jetsam being tossed in today's tiny waves. (It was so calm I almost began to wonder if I had stumbled onto an east-coast beach by mistake.)


And then I walked back again, back to my car. And I will hold the memory of this beach walk warm against my heart, to give me strength on any 'hard' days when I am far away from home.


'Foreigners' tend to think that Palmy is so unfashionably 'inland'- but it only takes half an hour to reach Himatangi beach. I'll be back here again as soon as I get home...

8 comments:

  1. Oh Margaret, what glorious photos and memories to gather before you head away! Sooo glad you are getting some warm weather!
    AK

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  2. A good weekend- about time. Perversely, I don't mind if it is cold when I am in France because I prefer it not to be too warm for walking!

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  3. It's a beautiful beach, so peaceful and calming. Hmm, it will be spring when you are walking. Already the European weather is warming.

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    1. Yes, I love going to this beach Andrew, and it was especially beautiful yesterday.
      It will indeed to be a little odd to be arriving into springtime, when autumn has barely started here. And I've been watching the temperatures in France closely! I will be walking at some altitude though, and it's not all that warm yet where I am going- not quite at my Palmy winter temps yet.

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    2. It will get warmer as you walk, at least it should. If I remember 2008, even in June in Spain there were days when we froze!

      Michèle

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    3. I know Michèle. I posted home my good windjacket in Estella thinking that I was in Spain, in June, and it would be warm now. I had many times I regretted that right up until I reached Moratinos when finally it turned warm. I will not post home my good windjacket early this time at all!- though I guess I could consider posting it ahead to Moissac at some stage...

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    4. Are you going to stop in Moissac to see Rom and Aideen? They are such a nice couple and Mathieu-Jacques is a sweetheart.

      Michèle

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    5. Definitely planning to Michèle. Mathieu will have grown so much since last time I was there, when he was just a babe in arms!

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