Group Stop Blog Entry- Samantha Eulo

Samantha Eulo

I chose Cathedral Cove to write about because I thought the beach was amazing in it's entirety, from the hike down, to jumping off the rock in the ocean, I found Cathedral Cove to be astounding. The best part was exploring the sea caves and actually swimming into them and hanging out inside. To see coastal processes that I've learned about in class, such as honey comb weathering, in person was really interesting. The whole adventurous feel of Cathedral Cove hooked me right from the beginning. In my surficial processes class we learned about wave cut notches and to see one in person was really helpful in visualizing what they really are and how they form.

Wave Cut Notch:

The geology at Cathedral Cove was so prominent. Honey-comb weathering created sea stacks, sea caves and sea arches. It was amazing to see all three in one beautiful place because all these processes take hundreds of years to form a feature.

Sea Arch:

Sea Stack:

The biology at Cathedral Cove was also amazing. The hike down was filled with many types of trees and plants. My favorite was the fern. To see first hand how it uncurls was awesome because a lot of the Maori carvings I saw included the growing fern. Seeing the fern made me understand the Maori's value for the fern and what it means for new life.

Overall, I found Cathedral Cove to be the most amazing place we've visited. It was jam packed with geology, biology, culture and adventure and I soaked up every second of it. When I come back to New Zealand I am most definitely going to visit Cathedral Cove and I feel so lucky to have shared that experience with everyone on the trip.