Sunset at the Purakaunui River mouth, The Catlins, Otago

Beautiful Purakaunui Bay is a well-known holiday spot, the DoC campsite next to the beach being especially popular during the summer break. It is a spectacular bay with a broad sweeping sandy beach backed by cliffs up to 200 metres high – the highest cliffs in the Catlins. This area is also popular with surfers, offering some of the largest rideable waves in New Zealand from time to time as subantarctic storms churn the chilly Southern Ocean well south of New Zealand.

This photograph was taken next to the mouth of the Purakaunui Stream at low tide shortly after sunset, when the twilight sky had taken on a deep mauve colour just before the onset of darkness. A relatively slow shutter speed, whilst unavoidable in the low light, had the effect of accentuating the flow of the stream as it poured out across the beach on its way to the sea.