Southern Alps at sunset, Makawhio (Jacob's) River mouth, Bruce Bay, Westland

Bruce Bay is a long, curving beach extending 7 kilometres north from Heretaniwha Point to Makawhio Point, about 40 kilometres south of Fox Glacier. The headlands at each end of this beach are the remains of ancient moraines, left behind by enormous glaciers that previously flowed westwards from the Southern Alps. Following the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago a wide coastal plain extended seaward, forming large areas of lowland swamp forest and a remarkable succession of dune ridges and intervening linear swamps near the present beach.

The Makawhio (Jacob's) River is one of several rivers that cross this coastal plain, reaching the northern end of Bruce Bay just south of Makawhio Point. A sand bar piled high by Tasman swells impounds the river here, forming a small estuary, before the river finally runs to the sea around a pile of huge glacially-deposited boulders. The estuary itself, on a calm, clear evening, makes for superb reflections of the Southern Alps – especially if high tide coincides with sunset as it did when this photograph was taken.