Titahi Bay.Redux

    The waves were running headlong onto the shore with reckless abandon, their white caps askew as they raced toward the sand.

    Josep paid them scant attention as he scrambled down toward the sand but his cousin Elena paused as she looked down from the hill above Titahi Bay and said simply, "It's beautiful."

    And so it was.

    The last time I visited Titahi Bay it was with her aunt Elena more than a month ago. It was cold that day and the surf was not running high but was, instead, casually strolling ashore. The bay and the beach had been beautiful on that day as well and the sunset was spectacular but it had been an entirely different kind of beauty; a quieter one.

    Not so on this day. The wind was up but it was not cold since it came from the north, not the south, and we had three, perhaps four, hours before the sun went down and the temperature dropped.

    Down on the beach the sand was alive with barefoot children in shorts and t-shirts. A half dozen of them were busily building a castle of sand and sticks with a few shells thrown in for good measure. Others were kicking soccer balls and a few were walking with their moms in the wet sand just out of reach of the booming waves. Out on the water, a dozen surfers were bobbing up and down on the waves waiting for one on whose back they could climb for a wild ride toward the beach.

    It may be winter here in the Land Down Under and Over a Bit but if you give Kiwis a few minutes of sunshine they'll take full advantage of it even if doing so means jumping into water that is cold enough to instantly numb your fingers and toes.

    Elena and Josep spent almost two hours there, picking their way among the rocks and fossilized trees to search for shells, watch the cormorants diving for their dinners and, generally, enjoying the late afternoon on a sunny day. I, who cannot scramble much these days, was content to watch them. Life, for me, has mostly been about doing but, sometimes, standing off to the side and just watching it going about its business is all I really need to make what might have been an ordinary day extraordinary.

 

Kids plus sand equals a castle of some kind.

Elena searching for treasure at Titahi Bay.

Catching a wave at Titahi Bay.

Josep and Elena searching for more treasures.

End of the ride at Titahi Bay.

Elena found this perfectly preserved seahorse among the shells.

A quiet moment at Titahi Bay on a day when the waves were running high.

Waiting for a wave.

Josep and Elena deciding where to go next.

Hoping for just one more good ride, a lone surfer heads into Titahi Bay.