Tunnel Beach

Rumor has it that the farmer who owned land nearest to tunnel beach dug the tunnel you see Mae in so that his daughter could get down to the beach in the next three pictures.  The surf is really strong here and as a result of the beach access, the daughter drowned.  A pretty sad story, which made Mae a little uncomfortable walking down the tunnel to the beach.  We came across this enormous sea lion down on the beach so we climbed back up and watched it struggle across the beach and glide into the water.  It would duck four or five waves at a time on it's way out to the open water, it was really cool to watch.  There are just so many incredible landscapes all so close to us here, we are so lucky.  You can see how big the tunnel is in the last picture with the little pink spot on top being Mae.  It is also incredible how empty all these places are, even being so close to the second largest city on the South Island, it kind of reminds us of Wyoming.  Now it's back to a week of work.  Happy Guy Fawkes/Election day!

Cheers, Johnny