Cave Rock/Tuawera beach walk, New Zealand

I felt like a kid again exploring this volcanic cave formation. In low tide, the previously submerged rocks looked like geodes as the bright sun reflected off the encrusted black mussels shells and barnacles - beach walk around Cave Rock/Tuawerai, Sumner Beach, Christchurch, South Island/Te Waipounamu, New Zealand/Aotearoa

Highlights:
distracted by the tree 0:00
to the beach! 0:09
ice plant 0:18
African daisy/gazania 0:41
'Beach' restaurant 1:30
red-purple ragwort 1:57
360° 2:47
to the left with the group? 3:42
nope, to Cave Rock! 3:51
mast was erected in 1864 to guide ships 4:07
volcanic rock 4:52
beautiful flowering plants all over it 6:07
Aeonium arboreum succulent 6:43
orange deposits 7:08
ferns 7:28
oooh, huge opening 7:59
uh...is it safe to go in? 8:45
"..please move through quickly, don't linger." 9:00
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rockfal...
through the tunnel 9:15
inside the volcanic rock cave 9:40
another person for scale 10:07
during high tide, water's up this high 10:21
360° on the other side 11:43
ah, Cave Beach.... 12:20
shiny mussels shells and barnacles encrust the rocks 12:53
pan on other side 14:20
mussels everywhere 15:16
...in every nook 16:52
waves on the beach 17:17
this entire area is under water during high tide 18:00
Mussels close their shells tightly to minimize water loss when exposed to air, creating a small water chamber inside which helps them survive
tide pools 19:31
great place to play and explore 19:46
mussels looked like geodes in the light 20:11
really want to play in the water 20:46
pan from Caves Beach 22:12
families enjoy the magical area 23:07
small formation at the side 23:43
huge Aeonium arboreum succulent 24:00
bee loves them 24:24
​​leucophyta brownii/silver nugget 25:01
aloe barberae 25:07
'Beach' restaurant 25:22
gorgeous Norfolk Island pine 25:40
side of the restaurant 25:45
pine's scale-like pattern 26:16
I'd like a treehouse in one of these 27:08
think I'd get arrested if I climbed up? 27:35
kid does little wheelie 28:07
kumara plicatilis 28:12
crassula bluebird bush 28:37
kumara plicatilis flower 29:23
leucophyta brownii/silver nugget 30:28
ride's here, time to go 30:46

https://www.peelingbackhistory.co.nz/...

Tips for this activity:
We did a post-lunch walk along Sumner beach (the promenade was under construction). The group walked off to the left along the shore, but I was drawn to Cave Rock to the right and spent all my time exploring it... we only had 45mins before we moved on to the next destination - it's worth more time, if you have it.

Great restaurant 'Beach' right next to it. Busy place, but service (for our table of 13) and food was good. I was craving pizza but that's always iffy without pictures - and the pizza we had at another city was awful...so I got something else. A friend ordered it, had extra and let us try a piece - it was really good! Get the mocktail elderflower spritz - yum!

https://ccc.govt.nz/parks-and-gardens...

Tips from my trip:
For this vacation, I decided to try Natural Habitat Adventures (NatHab) - World Wildlife Fund (WWF) partners since 2003. NatHab offers conservation travel-nature expeditions. For this area, they partner with local guides and drivers from Elite & Personal Tours (EPT)

EPT https://www.eptours.co.nz/
-Sam (expedition leader) - if you go to NZ (with or without NatHab), book this guy! He blew us away with his vast knowledge and enthusiasm. He was incredibly organized and thoughtful

Every night he: shared a whiteboard with the next day's timing and events, temperatures, tips; uploaded fabulous pictures which he took with his professional camera; and emailed us a diary for that day...like things we did, animals we saw, links to additional information, videos

For those with specific diets or preferences, he'd clear the more limited prix fixe menus with us in advance

When I wasn't comfortable with a ground level end room with a walkway wrapping around the bedroom that eliminated any privacy (or forced me to close the curtains and lose the view), he got me three different room options after the lodge manager lied to me and said there weren't any other rooms available

One day we had the option to kayak, but you couldn't go it alone. It was rainy, and the first good day to do laundry - not a lot of interest. Despite that, Sam hung out in the common area to be 100% available to us

For harder hikes, Sam encouraged all to join and was always there with a hand to help us through the mud and crossing the creek

Sam repeatedly went above and beyond and provided exceptional service that other companies only promise you

-Casey (driver) is very safe driver - handled the curvy mountain roads in bad weather like it was nothing