Black Sand Beach and Waterfall

New Zealand Travel Diary, Entry #8

After listening to Amateur Traveler Podcast on New Zealand, it seems I made the wrong choice between Black Water Rafting and Waitomo Glowworm caves.  According to the podcast, black water rafting was really the experience he liked more than the glowworm caves. Before coming to New Zealand, I had heard wonderful things about black water rafting but not so much about glowworms. Black water rafting is simply rafting in darkness, under caves probably so that everything appears black, hence the name "Black Water Rafting". As you should have guessed, I went to see glowworms in a cave but did not go black water rafting. Anyway, there will be opportunities to do it sometime later. :D

As I promised in my previous blogpost, I will post pictures of waterfall and gorgeous black sand beach. You may wonder well how is the sand black? Does the sand derive its color from sedimentary rocks? That's what I thought. It turns out that black sand is a result of volcanic ash released during volcanic eruptions. Remember, New Zealand is mostly formed from volcanic eruptions and it still has several active volcanoes, the most recent of which eruped within the last decade, I think. 

My friend Alvarro with Waterfall in background. Photo by: Digital Subway

Beach is an absolute eye-soother for me, especially because I am from a land-locked country. The first time I saw sea/ocean was when I was 20 years old, went with a Christian group called InterVarsity through Trinity University to a beach called Port Aransas, a little further from famous Corpus Christi in Texas. It was special. Seeing black sand beach this time was really special too. We spent more than an hour taking pictures, making graffitti on the beach, not so much building sand castles though. We are a little too old for that, I guess.

 The beautiful Black Sand Beach. Photo by: Digital Subway

 Anna walking on stones at the beach. Photo by: Digital Subway

If you want to see more pictures, you can see it on my Picasa Photo Album.


Read Entry #7 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #6 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here. 
Read Entry #5 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here. 

Read Entry #4 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.

Read Entry #3 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.

Read Entry #2 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #1 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.