Three Sisters Beach, NZ--the best beach ever!!

Late yesterday afternoon, Meg and I visited the best beach EVER I have seen. Three Sisters Beach, on the Taranaki west coast of North Island, NZ, lies an hour's drive north of New Plymouth. It is accessible only at low tide.  To get there, you walk/wade down the Tongaparutu river.  The earlier you leave ahead of low tide, the deeper the water, as you can see by the pictures of Meg.

The "sisters" are sea stacks, vertical columns of limestone cliffs, capped by harder rock, that the waves' forces have eroded away from the headland. Frequently they are arches whose center has collapsed. The shapes are both whimsical and dramatic, and provide nesting areas for seabirds. They glow, along with the cliffs, in the early evening sun.

And, there is a most excellent motel about fifteen minutes north of here, the Mokau Motel, one the best you will find anywhere. It overlooks the Mokau River and the ocean, and Mt Taranaki.  The facilities are equally suberb!