Picnic at Dead Man's Beach

Today was Picnic Day; the weather forecast was for a front to pass through at lunchtime bringing rain but the Weather Gods blessed us and we've had a fine day instead. I met Raylene, Nicoletta, Lee and the two dogs, Mac and Snow, at Butterfield Beach and we walked from there to Dead Man Beach via the Horseshoe Point Track. It's a pretty walk alongside Bragg Bay and then through native bush where I've spent many an hour with the barberry team.

Picnic at Dead Man Beach - the white area at the end of the red line!
Photo from Google Maps - looks like the ferry is coming in

At the Visitor Centre there is a folder with how areas got their names and although it doesn't go into details, apparently Dead Man Beach was named because a dead man was found on it!! It's a beautiful white sandy beach, only accessible by boat or a walk and it looks stunning in the sunshine - see a photo here http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/manu_milli/1/1294339106/dead-man-beach-funny-name-for-a-stunning-bay.jpg/tpod.html

We had a lovely picnic spread and watched the dogs dig holes in the sand - just as well the tide was coming in as we might still be sitting there!

The path down to the beach is steep with lots of steps

Picnic time

A well-camouflaged Mac in amongst the sand

Lee's dog, Snow

On the way back to the cars, we came across a horizontal tree trunk smothered with what I think is the native orchid, Earina mucronata. The flowers have a light fragrance and I really needed to have my close-up lens so that I could get a good close-up - will have to go back and try again as none of these are really sharp. A great website for orchids is http://www.nativeorchids.co.nz/

A whitetail deer has been grazing on the grass over by the duck pond whilst I've been writing - I've just had to turn the light on so now I can't see anything outside! Two more kiwi calls this morning; a female at 4.07am and a male at 4.25am. I had the possum trap set so had a quick peek out to make sure they weren't near it. The possum was around the other night and had a feed of silverbeet before coming up on the deck. Luckily I was still up and chased it away, then stayed up for another couple of hours to make sure it didn't come back. My vege garden now looks like Fort Knox with plastic netting surround - unfortunately I couldn't fashion a gate so it keeps me out as effectively as the possum!

Barberry tomorrow and Wednesday with Visitor Centre duties on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I cut down the reeds growing out from the deck with a curved slasher this morning but didn't get around to putting the wood in the woodshed so that's next on the job list.

Have a wonderful week...