There’s a strange magic in New Zealand. We first mentioned it in our Te Paki Sandstream post (link), but we experience it regularly. It’s a combination of the beauty of this place and the sometimes-otherworldly quality of the light. And then there’s the kind of magic where you stop short, furrow your brow, and say, “Now that’s odd.” It might be a strange coincidence, something seemingly out of place or some strange bending of the laws of physics. It will spur us to look at each other and wonder aloud if we’ve passed on and just don’t fully realize it yet.
Today we found the strange magic at the beach. We looked down at the wet sand and noticed the receded water left a pattern. It was a beautiful rendition of kauri trees, the giant trees that are special to, and representative of, New Zealand. It was lovely, but also mildly disturbing as we had to question whether all this is real or an after-death illusion.
We were glad we had the camera with us that afternoon. If just going on memory, we’d tell ourselves the patterns didn’t look that much like kauri trees – just an exaggerated memory. But we look at the pictures now and can see we didn’t imagine it; the water really did paint kauri trees in the sand for us. -Cyndi and Rich
