Sandstone and Crashing Surf

After paging through my Lonely Planet guide, we J-Flatties and Mariah decided to tramp on over to Tunnel Beach, not sure what we would find there, but knowing only that it was 75 degrees and sunny, and we desparately needed a trip to the beach. After just a short bus ride and a 2k walk through farm country, this is what we found:

To get to the private beach, which is otherwise cut off by sandstone cliffs, you must walk down a set of steep stairs through a tunnel in the rock until you reach the bottom 100 feet below. Hence, Tunnel Beach. It was built around 1870 by entrepreneur and politician John Cargill (also has a mountain nearby named after him), who wanted a private beach for his daughter, so that they would not be preyed upon by men...or so the bus driver told us. Rumor also has it that this was a birthday present to her. Lucky. The sand was incredibly soft and fine, and the Southern Pacific was frigidly cold. At their highest, we were jumping through wave crests 5ft tall, some large enough to carry us all the way back to shore. There were huge rocks to climb, caves to explore, and even a waterfall that we could relax beneath coming out of a sandstone aquifer above our heads.

Especially interesting was the species of seaweed that attached itself deep into the sand and used its natural adhesive to stick to rocks. With the constant tug and push of the surf, the seaweed needs to be well connected and very strong. It was like leather whips - thick, and a foot wide in some spots.

The climb back to the top after our stay at the beach was all the workout we needed in a day, and after visiting a few sheep and horses, we made our way back to the bus stop and headed back home, taking some of the beach home with us in all our nooks and crannies...