Last night, we took a picnic supper to Gore Bay. It was a warm, breezy evening, unusual for this time of year. Last week, when I took the children there for lunch one day, we had found a couple of rocks with fossilized bones sticking out of the top, and wanted to go back to take pictures of them. They are in a place you can only go at low tide, which is why we had to wait till evening yesterday. We got there about two hours before low tide.
The boys took off down the trail to the beach as soon as they were done eating, taking a cloth shopping bag with them to hold all the mussels they were planning to collect! The rest of us followed a little more leisurely. We were able to find the fossils we had seen the last time without too much trouble–and then found more and more and more! 
Finally we made our way to the south end of Gore Bay, where the boys were diligently hunting. After walking around a little on the rocks there, we decided to go around into Port Robinson. This was the only access to the Cheviot area in the early days, 100-130 years ago. Apparently, they would unload the ships and send the goods up some sort of track to the top of the cliffs. They say there is no trace of the port left at sea level.
I’m not sure what this tunnel was all about, but it opens out of the cliff just above the high tide line. As you can imagine, the boys were pretty excited when their Daddy found it–that is the sort of thing you generally only find in mystery stories!
The boys, of course, had to practice their mountain-climbing skills, in addition to gathering a shopping-bag nearly full of mussels (now I have to figure out how to cook them!).
On our way back to the van, we stopped for a few minutes to chat with some tourists from Australia, and then got caught in the rain when it started suddenly. No one minded getting a little wet, though. Everyone agreed that this was a perfect way to spend an evening.
