Saturday, August 28, 2016 we got up and Reed went to the ATM to try to get some cash so we could go to the French Market.  The ATM would not give him any money and gave him a message that we needed to contact our bank.  So we called our Credit Union and they told us that they had issued new debit cards and shut all the old ones off.  Well ours had an extended renewal date because of when we would get home from our mission so they forgot to send us our new ones.  Long story short we had to figure out a way to get money with our charge card and we finally got that all figured out.  Oh my, it is so nice when everything works well but when it doesn't it causes a lot of problems.

So, we finally headed to the French Market with Elder and Sister Henderson.  They have really good pastries and breads, paella, sausages, Mediterranean foods and spices, fresh vegetables, smoked fish, fancy raviolis, and some unusual things to buy.  However, the bagels we usually buy and the spices we wanted were not there today so we were a little sad.  This will probably be the last opportunity we have to go there before we finish our mission.

We went back home and did some laundry and cleaning and then decided since we do not have many Saturdays left we needed to go someplace different.  We headed to the Waitakere to Bethell's Beach.  It was very windy and a bit cold but such a beautiful beach.

We had to walk in a ways from the parking lot.  The water behind me is the Waitakere River.

The tide was coming in and it really increased the width and depth of the river by the time we left.  You had to cross the river to get to the rest of the beach.

This is the Tasman Sea.  The water was a little rough today.  We thought this rock formation looked like a camel.

Reed's foot covered in sea foam.  We have never seen this much sea foam and this thick before.  When you picked it up it felt very sandy but left your hands brown and did not wash off real easily.

You can see how much sea foam there is with each wave coming in.

This one man was out kite surfing.  He did not stay out very long.  The wind was blowing really hard and he was moving very fast.

You can see all the sand and sea foam in the waves.

Reed does not care how cold it is when there is an adventure to be had.  The tide kept coming in and out of this cave so he hurried in when it went out.  He said it was quite a deep cave and kept trying to get me to go in.  If it would have been warmer and the tide was going out I would have liked to have gone in.

Reed then decided to walk along these slippery rocks and go into this other cave.  This family was trying to get out and back onto the beach but the tide was coming in and the water getting deeper.  They finally just had to get wet.  Reed got into water up to his waist trying to get into this cave. 

Reed said it was dry once he finally got into the cave.  I was getting very nervous because I did not want him to get caught by the tide.

Looking back into the cave once he came out and was up on the rocks out of the water.

You can see how high the water was starting to get in this passage leading into the cave.  It actually was up to the top of the rocks a couple of times while I was waiting for Reed to come back.

The Tasman Sea always has big waves.  It seems to be a little rougher than the Pacific Ocean.

Reed climbed up on the hill to take a picture of the rocks, the cave off in the distance, the Sea and the beach.  We walked for a couple of hours.

Reed crossed the river but I did not want to get wet.  He was in water up to his behind.  He offered to carry me but no thanks!  You can see me on the other side of the river with the life guard tower behind me and the mist in the air from the wind blowing the sand and waves.

This is what the water and rock formations looked like over on the other side of the river.

This boy and girl waited until the tide went out a bit and then he carried her across the river.

There was another small cave on the other side of the river.  It started to rain pretty good so you can see the drops on the camera lens.  Reed finally waded back and we headed back to the car.  This was a very nice beach with a lot to see if the weather would have been warmer and not so windy.  We wish we would have found this beach sooner.  Another great day in New Zealand.  There is just so much to see and do.  We are blessed.  Until next time, Love Elder and Sister Spencer (aka Reed and Nada)