My original plans for this photograph involved the tide being low at sunrise so that I could take some pictures of the famous Moeraki Boulders reflected on the beach with sunlit clouds as a backdrop. Unfortunately I had been careless enough not to have checked a local tide chart prior to coming here, and, arriving in darkness the previous night, I had no way of knowing the state of the tide until the next morning, so it was a matter of hope that the tide might be out at sunrise.
Morning came with the realisation that the tide was in fact right in, topped off with a heavy swell, bringing an end to my earlier photo idea. The sea was high enough to make most of the beach impassable, so I wondered if it was worth trying anything given that by the time the tide went down a bit the sun would have disappeared into the high cloud that was gathering overhead. Fortunately I decided to continue, scrambling out of reach of the waves as I picked my way along the base of the cliffs, taking a small handful of photographs including this one of waves washing around the Boulders before the still-rising tide forced a final retreat.
