Sandstorm on Brighton beach

I have applied this effect because that's how it felt like to me - a spectator while Dave had a quick dip. A really hot day here but of course, down at the beach, the usual Easterly sandblasted me and left with covered with sand, even my right ear which faced into the wind was full of it! Dave is penning his perspective, I shall edit this soon and add it in.

Thee years ago - the devastating Christchurch earthquake. A time to reflect and remember.

Later:
Dave's view of today's adventure...
So, being a super-hot day I decided to traverse the obstacle course that passes for a road east, and head to South New Brighton beach. I persuaded my mermaid to accompany me. The trusty Toyota Camry bounced over roads and we slalomed through orange road cones festooned with flowers (3 years exactly since the big quake). The further east we went, the lower the air temperature dropped. We disembarked from our car to a cooling on-shore easterly blast which was doing its best to shred the flags marking the patrolled section of the beach. A fine greyish sand was whipped around us, through us, into us.

Leaving the mermaid to patrol the sand-dunes, a place we agreed that no right-minded shark would ever venture (mermaids, are after all, being their favourite meal), I beat a path windward to the surf. Except it wasn’t really surf. As soon as a wave formed it was bashed into submission by the howling easterly and drove them landwards at a rate of ten per second. A few kids were doing their best to get caught in a rip, however the wind action rendered this action useless so they ran on to the sand to play chicken with a land-yacht speeding past at eighty kilometres per hour.

Having entered the foamy expanse of the Southern Pacific I felt the obligation to dive in and thrash about. I endeavoured to swim perpendicular to the shore but despite my considerable bulk got blown toward the shore. I made my usual whale and dolphin sounds to comfort myself and hoped in doing so I would not draw the attention of a Japanese scientific fleet. This is just like Bay of Plenty I told myself, but it had the feeling of August rather than February. Pretty soon my fingers and head began to ache with the spray and the cold. I stayed in for a manly amount of time making sure I chucked in a few acts of bravado to show how macho I really am. I tired of this after five minutes though so went back to check on the condition of my mermaid.

My mermaid had forgotten to adopt the usual Christchurch beach attire (think Bedouin not-so-chic) and was completely covered in a fine layer of sand, even to her back teeth so help me God. I made positive and reassuring comments about a free microdermabrasion and the bracing qualities of the sea-air. My hands thawed from their frozen claw position and I managed to rub down with a towel and pull on a shirt, and then decided to enjoy anyway, the abrasive qualities of a day at a Christchurch beach.

Two minutes later we were back in the car, looking forward to our bouncing and weaving journey to the west of the city from whence we came. My mermaid headed for the shower and I found my bottle opener shaped like a jandal and took the top off a bottle of lager. Sweet and adorable southern beaches, oh how I love you I sang as the sand washed out of my throat. My mermaid recovered with a fine glass of chardonnay and we ate cheese and crackers and looked forward to our next Christchurch beach adventure in five years’ time.