Sci Fi Story

It’s my one-year anniversary today One year ago I was working in New Zealand in the city of New Plymouth. (North Island). I had had some time to kill over the weekend, so although it was a rainy overcast day I decided to go for a drive along the coast. I drove cautiously on the narrow highway heading north, stopping almost 200 km into my drive. I saw a beach sign and drove quite a ways off of the highway to find it.

There was no parking lot, so I pulled up a rutted hillside dirt road and walked down to the beach. The weather had improved over the last couple of hours, and the sky was now clear and sunny. Only the pristine blue of the sky overhead equaled the water’s brilliant shade of deep blue. It was time to stretch my legs and take a walk.

I casually walked down the beach road towards the beach as it descended into ledges and clefts… terminating in a nearly vertical drop of 5 feet. I sat at its edge and lowered myself to the soft delicate blonde sediment of the beach. Two couples were lounging there and enjoying a late lunch as they fished along the sea. I wanted to give them a berth, so I headed off down the beach. A stream was rushing across the span of beach, so I took off my boots and socks, rolled up my jeans, and forged my way across. The water was runoff from the earlier rains, dark with volcanic ash, knee deep and swift. I left my hiking boots and my socks there near the stream, and set out for the far end of the sandy shore. Cliffs 30 to 40 feet high marked the terminus of the beachhead, and extended for more than a mile and a half. The beach was empty, and gave me a strong sense of peace as I walked along.

Lost in my thoughts as I was, I couldn’t tell you how long it actually took for me to encounter the terminus of the beach…I only knew that the cliffs has slowly encroached upon the sandy plain until the water lapped at its base.