Beach rock sea

We have been to Bastion Point a couple of times recently.  The first was with the Wednesday walkers  and we went towards the mouth.  The most interesting sight was a large clump of seaweed.  One frond of bull kelp was particularly impressive being at least 45 cm wide.

 The diversity of the sea weed was also notable.

 A few sea tulips were also in the mix.

 On Thursday we headed towards the point itself.  The amount of ash was surprising.  It was forming a scummy layer in the pools ..

 .. and tide marks on the beach.

 We thought that this was a result of rain washing the ash off the cliffs in the area.

 The sea was very rough.

 This didn't appear to have driven many seabirds inshore, altough Frances drew my attention to a distant Gannet.

 The rocks beside the boat ramp were well endowed with oysters  and (probably coincidentally) 3 Sooty Oystercatchers, of which 2 were hanging around together.

 Probably not a good day for a pelagic outing.

There were quite a few surfers around for a working day.  As always there seemed to be a lot of waiting involved, both in the water ...

 ...  and waiting to get there.  The guy with the helmet had a camera attached to it.

 Finally up and going.