WHARARIKI

Wharariki is a place where I spent a solid amount of time and it will always hold a special place in my being. It was a five minute drive then a scenic ten minute walk from where I was living, so I had no real excuse not to get as much out of it as I possibly could. It’s the kind of landscape that when you visit with more than one person, everyone invariably ends up walking by themselves, as if each individual is drawn to their own space by the sublime energy of the beach. When visited alone it feels as if you could be the only person left in the world. It is truly one of the most beautiful areas I have visited in New Zealand and the fact that there’s a permanent seal colony living there makes it all the more interesting.

Virtually the northern most beach on the South Island’s west coast, it is constantly bombarded by huge swells off the Tasman Sea and is almost continually windy. This renders it an incredibly volatile landscape with many stunning sand formations – which I documented in my ‘Castles Made of Sand’ series. I highly recommend Wharariki as a place to visit. There is no better place to clear your head, witness the relentless energy of mother nature and come to grips with the liberating notion of your own insignificance.