The West Coast of the South Island is characterised by exposed beaches and headlands, swept by ever-present swells that have been generated by subantarctic storms well to the south of New Zealand. The exposed nature of this coast means that few beaches are safe for swimming, but their grandeur is second to none – especially during and immediately after storms when booming swells leave one in no doubt about the power of the sea.
Okarito Beach, half an hours’ drive from Franz Josef Glacier, is a typical example of a rugged West Coast beach, forming a northward-extending spit that encloses the large tidal Okarito Lagoon. South of the lagoon there are high cliffs cut into ancient glacial moraines, and the beach here is littered with gigantic schist boulders which have been eroded out of the cliffs by wave action.
The day I spent here was a typically wet and stormy winter’s day, with a steady drumming rain that had lasted for hours – the sound of which was broken only by the distant rumble of huge westerly swells breaking far offshore. By late afternoon the rain began to ease, so I decided to head out to the beach and take a walk south towards a cliffed headland in the distance. Not long afterwards a watery sun broke through the cloud and rain to form a rainbow over where I had just come from, lighting up the dark clouds which themselves were beginning to take on the pale yellow-gold hue of the setting sun. The falling tide had left behind patterns of wave-stranded foam on the beach, each line beaten thick and stiff like egg white, adding to the dramatically-lit scene in this photograph.
