Chathams by Car - Part Three

I went to buy post cards this morning and went down to Chatham cottage gifts first, as they are only open 10-12 on a Saturday. I got a few, but they were quite expensive and not really what I wanted. I went up to the general store, as they have lots of souvenir/tourist type things, but they didn’t have any. The lady in there advised me that the Hotel had some, which was my next stop anyway. I got more postcards at the hotel for less than half the price of the gift shop, but oh well. I just have to decide which one to give to whom.

So, first part of today’s outing was to the Basalt Columns (which I had to ask permission for). They were pretty cool, but probably would have been better if the weather wasn’t rubbish and if I was a geologist! :P

Next stop was Port Hutt, which is where I hoped to see one of the boats from the round the world yacht series (the Oracle). It was apparently coming in to there or Waitangi with a broken mast, but I couldn’t see it at either. There wasn’t much to see at Port Hutt, although I did get a cool photo of an old rusty boat. The bay looked really nice there, but the weather didn’t do the photos justice at all. I thought I’d try to go to the Stone Cottage on the way to Waitangi West, but I didn’t get permission and it was way too foggy anyway, unfortunately. So I drove for a bit and came to Manganui beach, which looked lovely, but the weather there was quite bad. I ate my lunch there (in the car) and took a few pictures of the beach, before driving back towards home.

On the way home I thought I’d risk a quick trip to Blind Jim’s (shark teeth hunting) while I had the car. Just before pulling up to the spot I noticed massive rain cloud coming, but I really wanted the teeth and I was only planning to look for 15 minutes. When I got there, there was another couple there, who I chatted to briefly. Straight after I found a tooth, right where they were looking! I showed them, they walked away to look some more and I found another one, both within the space of 5 minutes of being there. We both left at that point, as the rain was coming at us horizontally and I didn’t want to be greedy. ;)

The Basalt columns and the sea.

At the Basalt Columns. This Island would be orgasmic for a geologist.

Probably my favourite photo of the day! This is a boat at Port Hutt, felt quite weird, like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

The two fossilised sharks teeth I found today, at Blind Jim's. Not enitrely sure how it got that name though.

This is just to show how small they are, which makes them hard to spot. They are hard enough to spot anyway, as they have a similar look to muscle shells.

Manganui Beach, which this photo doesn't do justice. I didn't spend too long trying to get a decent photo though.

Pretty self explanatory, but I like to take pictures of the signs of the places I visit.

When I got home, it was still horrible weather, so I decided which postcards to give to who. I only have a few definites on my list, so I wrote those ones. That was today's adventure.