Curly whirlys

These are a road side plant. I think they are the empty pods after the seeds are dispersed. I liked their curls. ( recently had curly whirly potato chips which are fun)

Stayed at Hokatika They call themselves the Jade capital with dozens of greenstone shops and carvers. Seems like half the shops!
The river walk provides interesting history - this patch of estuarine river had up to fourty ships moored here during the gold rush; a shipwrecks occurred frequently roughly every 6 weeks, partly because the boats had to go side on to the swells to enter the river and the sand and mud banks kept shifting; some ships even got dragged in over the sand bar.

The prize winning book "The Luminaries" is set here. A detailed and complex but very satisfying historical story.

Some how we kept ahead of any bad weather and had sun all the way down.