Spent today on Bethells Beach - the East Coast Beaches are temporarily closed...
It's a dramatic place, out West, where the music video for Shania Twain's single "Forever and for Always" was filmed, the British/New Zealand movie 'The Man Who Lost His Head', and episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess. So, it has a claim to fame!
The waves were wild, with the wind blowing off-shore, and we walked to the sea cave at the end, which you can get to at low tide.
The Maori name for this place is, Te Henga, meaning sand, and it was settled over 1000 years ago. There are always lots of squid shells curling along the beach & the lone surfers and fishermen. People walk their dogs and other assorted 'pets' here!
It gets its modern name because John Bethell negotiated the sale of the land for the nation & people. He was one of seven children of a family of early settlers, who, aged nine was taken out of school and sent with his brother to clear family land in the Waitakere forest.
The sixth generation of Bethells still supervise the land, and have the only cottages there.
There are no shops, no petrol, no houses and this is what keeps it special. It simply has a beach tower, for the lifeguards, which operates in the summer.
When the sun comes out the sands sparkle, because they contain quantities of black titanomagnetite which comes from from the volcanic rocks around there.
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