A Wall of Water

Home. What does the word mean? We all have a different sense of what makes a place home. I have found my home here in New Zealand walking along the rough and rugged coastlines of the Wairarapa. These beaches are not the typical white sand and perfect blue waves, they are harsh, stony, impractical for swimming, wild places that capture how life can be turbulent. On a perfect summer‘s day, these places are beautiful, the sunshine dances on the waves and you see families having their picnics. But in the middle of winter on a cold and stormy day, is when these beaches come to life. The roar of the surf as it lands on the stony shore, the noise so loud you cannot hear your thoughts. Then there is the wind, so strong it might just sweep you away like the spindrift off the tops of the waves. The grey sky, black pebbles of the beach and the murky water of the waves, everywhere you look appears bleak. Standing here in the middle of nowhere with the raw power of the elements engulfing me, I look beyond the storm to the horizon where i can see the storm has calmed.