November 11th - Day 63 - Beach Walk- Coffee and Hats

 After a slow morning spent around the fireplace, for our last full day in Fox River, we decided to take a nice walk along the glorious beach just below our cottage.  We had assured our host Angie that we would be out of the cottage at 2:45pm when she had arranged to show the property to the former mayor of Westport (they are listing the cottage, their 'studio' above, and a tract of land above them, for sale).  

So we drove down to the spot where it was possible to get onto the beach - about a quarter mile south of our driveway.  We set off heading north and walked as far as we could north, before hitting what looks like a volcanic 'plug' (the crust that formed over the opening of a volcano that blew off during an eruption - like the pitons we saw in Saint Lucia).  We enjoyed the surf, had to 'ford' across a couple of streams, and did some rock collecting (there weren't any shells to be found!).  In all, we spent about 2 hours on the beach - and we loved it!

            View of the Cottage from the Beach

Cave which was covered in colorful limpets.

Outflows of water lined with rocks across the beach.  

Deb, the rock hound, was in heaven.  We ended up with quite a collection of stones in bright colors and interesting patterns.  Here are a few favorites.

The final collection

We went from there to Punakaiki to get a coffee at one of the cafes near the information center of the national park, and Deb picked up a hat at the store.  The hat purchased the day before ended up fitting Munroe perfectly!

Following that we headed home to get dinner ready - after beetroot rubbed smoked salmon & crackers as a starter, we had marinated chicken thighs (cooked on the grill), Aussie rice and quinoa, and roasted broccoli. It was so warm and nice we were able to eat out on the deck for the first time since arriving!

We caught an episode of the latest season (16) of the Aussie original TV show "My Kitchen Rules" (MKR) and watched a bit of "Seven Periods with Mr. Gormsby" - both wonderful reminders of our time in Ocean Grove during Munroe's sabbatical leave in early 2013.  There is a shorter-lived MKR for New Zealand (and I believe one for Britain) - we will need to look into getting these to watch when we get home - it is a fun show.