During the summer we got in the habit of heading over to Brighton Beach after work to make the most of the warm evenings. The suburb of New Brighton is on a sand spit to the north of Christchurch and is a quick walk over the dunes to the beautiful sandy beach.
On our way out to New Brighton we always stop at our favourite fish and chip shop to pick up a tasty supper to eat on the beach. After extensive research and taste testing, Eric was able to find a delicious fish and chip shop that serves local Akaroa Blue Cod and chips.
The beach here is always so different depending on the tides. On this particular evening were able to arrive just in time for low tide and had a choice of dinner entertainment watching the kite surfers and birds.
The gulls would collect shellfish from the freshly exposed sand, fly up and then drop them onto the beach to crack them open. They didn’t seem to mind us watching them and would drop the shellfish quite close to were we were so that we could hear the thud as the shells landed on the hard sand.
After our fish and chip supper we headed out along the beach for a stroll and a chance to watch the birds and inspect what the tide had washed up. On our walk this evening we found several sand dollars and plenty of palm fronds that had been washed up.
We walked all the way along to the end of the sandspit to the estuary where the Heathcote and Avon Rivers meet the sea. We had great views across the water to the suburbs of Sumner and Redcliffs on the other side of town.