Wild and Beautiful

Monkey Bay is a place that you might expect to find labelled on a pirate's treasure map as Mermaid Lagoon. The first time I pulled into the parking area after following directions for Whites Bay, I was greeted by turquoise waves washing up on miles of sand and pebble beach, as well as a sign indicating that there were caves right beyond the tree line. Naturally I made a beeline for the caves, hoping to find buried treasure. Eventually I satisfied myself that whoever had scratched all the graffiti into the cave walls would have taken any treasure there was and I leapt up the stone staircase at the end of the parking area to see what else I could find. I emerged at the top to see tiny Monkey Bay – a narrow spit of sand surrounded by black, volcanic rock on three sides and open ocean on the fourth – to the left and the wide, blue ocean in front of me.
After staring for a few moments at the lovely scene, I skipped down the path in excitement at having found this uninhabited, secluded cove and imagined mermaids sunning themselves on the rocky outcroppings before diving back into deeper water to tend their seaweed gardens. There were piles of driftwood scattered over the sand and a giant boulder in the middle, perfectly placed for me to perch on and watch the waves roll in. A blowhole in the back corner of the rocks sent the sound of crashing waves echoing through the cove and on one salt-eaten rock face were three bolted rock climbing routes. The aqua water danced in the sunlight and lines of seaweed in shades of orange and rust floated lazily back and forth with the current. It looked so pretty that I wanted to dive right in. Only knowing how cold the water is off the shores of New Zealand gave me pause.
The black sand and rock combined with the blues and greens that make up earth, sea, and sky painted a scene that I could sit and stare at for hours. The views and solitude made it easy to imagine that I was on a private island, instead of a 20 minute drive away from the nearby town of Blenheim. Subsequent visits found me maneuvering an inflatable kayak around the rocks off shore in search of delicious green-lipped mussels, gambling my skin against the jagged climbing wall, relaxing on the beach, and scrambling across the next tiny cove and over another rocky wall to access a great spot for fishing, tide pool watching and mussel gathering. But, no matter how I spent my time, I always left feeling like the wild place in my soul had found a place to call home.