Birdlings Flat

I love Birdlings Flat, its a bleak stoney beach on the east coast of the South Island just below Banks Peninsula. The tide brings stones from all over the world and you can find agate, petrified wood, jasper, chalcedony, rhodantite, garnets and all sorts of serpentine and unidentified yet fascinating rocks that have been tumbled by the ocean into smooth shapes. I went to this beach many times as a child to hunt for agates at the tides edge and eat savaloys(weird red kiwi sausages) toasted on a bonfire in one of the caves when the weather got too wild. The continental shelf is very short here and the waves crash hard on the beach with a rip that can grab you by the ankles and drag you out in minutes, or at least thats what we were told and we believed it. As each wave receedes you can hear the rumble and rattle of the stones grinding on each other and if you look closely you can see stones leaping about in the sea foam.

This trip was with two cars full of family and the nicest sunniest day of the year. We wandered the beach filling our pockets with special stones and then lay in the sun while the nieces and nephews built a driftwood and seaweed monument to the occasion. Absolutely delightful time and the only reason we left and continued on to Akaroa was lack of food and the siren call of Akaroa fish and chips.