Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Walk to Fossil Bay






Now that the weather is better, we are taking more advantage of the numerous walkways available on the island. These trails are somewhat controversial, since they often skirt some of the multi-million dollar houses on the island, whose owners prefer not to see the smelly trampers. But New Zealand egalitarianism holds strong, and there are some beautiful walks in the area.

Today we went to Fossil bay, the next bay to the west of our house. The fossils found there are perhaps not that exciting (being bivalves: things that look just like the stuff you find on the beach every day) but Ilona's paleontological interests draw her there.

The first part of our walk is through private land (Ilona got permission), leading to a "stairway" down the cliffside. Mike (and Alexander) could not do the stairway down (it was essentially vertical with ropes to hold on to that prevent plummeting to one's death) but Ilona went down and found a fossil or two (the actual site is halfway up the cliff but enough falls down to be collected at the bottom). Ilona notes that these are Paleocene fossils.



We then took a walk through vineyards to a nice outlook over the coast and water. Alexander was a trouper for a while, but eventually his little legs gave out.

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