Tidal Flats and Tairua Beach

This morning we ate breakfast in the hostel again and packed all of our things back on the coach bus. We had to time our departure perfectly because we were going to tidal sand flats and we needed to get there at low tide. We were able to get there at just the right time to walk across a huge tidal sand flat to see a lot of the biology there. We were able to see the sea grass beds as well as numerous amounts of shells and other organisms. I spent a lot of time looking in the small tidal pools for unique and interesting shells. We learned some sampling methods and practiced taking cores of sand and using a sieve to find organisms living in the sediment. The sediment in this are was anoxic (no oxygen) under the surface layer so the sediment appeared black when it was dug up. We spent a lot of time here identifying organisms for our biology class, then headed back to town to grab a lunch.

We then climbed up a small dormant volcano so we could get a good look of the area. Looking down one side we could see Pauanui beach, and on the other side was Tairua Beach. The view from this area was breathtaking, since we could see so much in all angles. I really loved being able to see the tidal flat we had just been on, since the water pattern through the estuary looked gorgeous.

Pauanui Beach

The estuary and sand flats

We then walked back down and spent some time in Tairua beach. Apparently there are beach cameras that take photos of the beach every half hour so that geologists can look at wave activity and how the beach is changing over time. We lined ourselves up to spell "UD 2010" on the beach to get our picture taken by the beach cam. Art couldn't find the pictures online, but he is trying to contact the organization in charge of it so hopefully we can see if it worked!

After a nice amount of beach time it was back on the coach to head to Hamilton, the location of the University of Waikato. I was so relieved to finally go to the university because we had been living out of our suitcases for so long that I had gotten very unorganized. We got to the uni and got to unpack and organize, and we have our own rooms which is so nice. Exhaustion was setting in with everyone so we spent the first night in Hamilton going to bed really early.