About 15-miles north of Dunedin, there are some beautiful stretches of coastline at Aramoana, which is Maori for pathway to the sea. One of our favorite beaches is there, a thin curving wedge of white sand, pounded constantly by gleaming breakers that dump drifts of long spiral shells onto the sand. The beach is only about 50-feet wide at high tide, bordered on the other side by a wall of tall dunes that seem to gather and store the noise of the waves until it's the only sound that can be heard. It's a beautiful and peaceful place.
Emeline and I go there every chance we get, and look out over the flat calm of the South Pacific, uninterrupted from here to Chile.
If you struggle to the top of the dunes, which takes a while on the shifting sands, and turn your back on the sea, you find yourself looking out over acres and acres of salt mudflats. The mudflats are a delicate and fragile ecosystem, which supports some species found in few other places. Vehicles aren't allowed on them. Signs are clearly posted.
Unfortunately, one of the species found here is the human. Last weekend, I watched a group of kids who thought it was a blast to drive as fast as they could across the mudflats; or in tight circles, with some of their friends sitting on the top of the car, as you can see in this video and in a couple of photos below. Decades of growth were destroyed in moments. It makes me sad. I watched them for 20-minutes or so, hoping they'd get bored before I did.
They didn't.
If you struggle to the top of the dunes, which takes a while on the shifting sands, and turn your back on the sea, you find yourself looking out over acres and acres of salt mudflats. The mudflats are a delicate and fragile ecosystem, which supports some species found in few other places. Vehicles aren't allowed on them. Signs are clearly posted.
Unfortunately, one of the species found here is the human. Last weekend, I watched a group of kids who thought it was a blast to drive as fast as they could across the mudflats; or in tight circles, with some of their friends sitting on the top of the car, as you can see in this video and in a couple of photos below. Decades of growth were destroyed in moments. It makes me sad. I watched them for 20-minutes or so, hoping they'd get bored before I did.
They didn't.
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