Nature's Hidden Jewel

When I was a young girl we used to holiday near this Hidden Jewel on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. In those days it was a scramble through the long grasses, over fences, around big rocks and then a scarily steep descent usually on ones bottom to reach the sandy cove below. Of course if one had a boat that would have been a lot easier, but sadly we didn't have one.

There was no road access and in fact the beach where we stayed at Hahei, had not a house in sight, a far cry from the ruination it has now become. We took our caravan and parked beside the stream that ran through to the beach. It was very secluded and when we first went there, there may have only been a handful of other campers. The cove in this painting was then called Mares Leg cove because the arch of rock jutting from the headland point resembled a horse's hind leg. This is gone now and lives only in my memory.

The painting is indeed a Hidden Jewel because it contains this precious memory of a time past, when halcyion days were spent in freedom