Waves on rocks at sunset, Ninety Mile Beach, Northland

Ninety Mile Beach makes up the western margin of Northland’s Aupouri Peninsula, a vast accumulation of sand stretching between isolated volcanic outcrops that were formerly offshore islands. Ninety Mile Beach is continuous and unchanging along most of its 90 km length, with the exception of a small island known locally as The Bluff. A small outcrop of volcanic rock, The Bluff is accessible at low tide and makes for a popular fishing spot as it allows access to deep water surfcasting that would be impossible from the beach.

As part of a trip to the Ninety Mile Beach area in late 2006, I spent a night camped out on The Bluff. This gave me the opportunity to photograph its seaward side at sunset, experimenting with long exposures of heavy surf on rocks such as in this photograph. While the resulting image looks serene enough, the long exposure masks the power of the surf which had forced me to grab my camera gear and scramble to higher ground on several occasions before I was able to get the image I was looking for.