A Day at the Beach in Okarito
Swade of Okarito Boat Tours and A Day at the Beach festivities
A Day at the Beach
25/09/09 3:15 PM
A Day at the Beach Festival is the inspiration of Coasters Louis Brown and Guy Ryan. Late September Louis finished a solo walk from Karamea to Franz Josef – walking along the West Coast and inspiring other West Coasters to engage in educational and fun activities along the way.
He arrived in Okarito on Tuesday Sept 23 in great spirits. We met him on the North Beach of Okarito and after a good nights rest he joined a group of local school kids from Franz Josef and interested adults too who took part in A Day at the Beach Festival at Okarito. Sarah Bond from the Department of Conservaiton and Karen Mayhew of the Blue Penguin Trust put on a great slideshow and talk in Donovan’s Historic Store in Okarito.
As the grey skies cleared to brilliant sunshine, Okarito Boat Tours ferried everyone across the mouth of the Okarito Lagoon to the North Beach. Paula took everyone for a walk up the beach to a hidden cemetery and gave an impromptu talk on the human history of the area. It was great to mix the ecology of this unique environment with the human history and eco-tourism of today in an educational format. Thanks to Louis and Guy for their great festival which has inspired so many others to come out and appreciate the incredible environment we are so fortunate to live in.
For more information and some great photos on the festival visit www.adayatthebeach.org.nz.
