They walked, and walked, and walked and....

Sorry for the delay in posting but there was a problem with it and I finally sent a message to google and they seemed to have fixed whatever the issue was.  Hopefully.

In looking at maps and suggested outings we have found that there is a way to walk the entire east coast of the island, at least where there are beaches. So we started on afternoon and went first to Devanport. That is where the wharf is on this side of the harbour.  We walked all those beaches and visited the little town there.  Certainly a tourist city.  The cruise ships come in and they ferry the passengers to Devonport for the day. Lots of places to eat as well as places to spend money.  After we were there we went to cheltenham beach. This is the place where we had lunch with the office Christmas party and where the tide was so far out.  It was again so far out and easy to walk.  We tried at the beginning to keep our feet dry but that soon went by the wayside.

We walked together for awhile but then I was taking too long so my companion headed off by himself. I wondered and looked at shells and the sand and all those things that were there to see and then I saw it.  A sand dollar!  I was so excited but when I picked it up I had the feeling that it was still alive.  So I put it back but soon I was seeing more.  I started to pick them up and realized that if there was a hole on the bottom they were dead.  I found 14!  There were more but I decided not to be greedy.  I took them home and put them in a bucket of water since we were going to FHE with the seniors.

They sat in the water until the next evening when I had time to take care of them.  I washed them and kind of scrubbed them with a tooth brush and then put them in a solution of water and bleach and left them overnight.  And this is what they look like now.

The little one is a bit bigger than a golf ball and the biggest one is about the size of a very large navel orange.  I am so excied that I found these.  In all the reading I have done and in all of the materials everyone has left there is nothing that says these shells would be found on cheltenham beach! Bonus!

We continued our walk and ended up on narrow neck beach which is the beach north on cheltenham.  It was fun to realize that is where we were.  There are big lava formations that separate the beaches usually but they were easy to walk over etc.  It was a very nice afternoon.