Seashells

Being from Kansas, I grew up with the idea that seashells were objects of almost mythical beauty and attraction. They came from far-off, exotic places, and they had endless variation in shape, colour, and design. I cherished the shells I collected on beach trips as treasures from another world. I haven't entirely lost that view of seashells in adulthood. I still remember going into an amazing seashell store in Hawai'i during my first year at university, and having an unfathomably strong urge to either live there forever or take each and every shell home.

Wanting to share this delight in seashells with my children, and now having the privilege of living in a place that is almost entirely coastline, I did some shell collecting. Tangaroa is the atua (guardian) of the sea, and we have a special area in our room that is for taonga (treausures) that Tongaroa has given us. Unfortunately, such taonga do eventually get broken, so they need replacing. Fortunately, shell collecting is a delightful task, which I have happily delegated to myself.

This is my most recent batch of shells (and pummice), collected principally from Makara Beach, although some are from Tarakena Bay and Tongue Point.

This is one of the more common types I find, although I rarely find them this brilliantly white.

This is what the inside of that shape of shell looks like. Sometimes they're actually cooler when they're broken. Also, those stripes of gold and brown are more typical coloration here.

This is a paua (abalone) shell, which I believe I've written about before. They are so beautiful, and become more so if you know how to polish them. Maybe I should learn how someday. 

Side note: In the new Disney movie, Moana, her necklace is made from a small paua shell, much to the delight of my children, who recognize it as the same as the ones we have at Whare Kea (my centre).

You can also find shards of paua shell, which are amazing as well, because the edges get smoothed and rounded like sea glass.

I also found, for the first time ever, little tiny paua! They're so cute!

And unlike the big ones, the little ones I found are cream and pink on the inside. It's hard to tell in the picture, but they do still have a bit of iridescence. 

To give you a sense of scale, here are some of the paua-like shells I found that day. To be clear, I don't actually know if they are all paua. They look the same to me, except for size and colour variations, and I haven't heard of anything else that looks like that, so for now I'm going to assume that they're paua. They can get much bigger than that as well. We saw one once that was bigger than a dinner plate!

I love the spiral swirls in seashells!

This one is wonderful because of the bit of rainbow that it's got going on, as well as for how tall and separate the parts of the spiral are, as compare to many that flow together. By the way, a word in te reo Māori for spiral is āwhiowhio (pronounced ah-fee-o-fee-o), which is one of my favourites! The children love it as well.

I've brought these seashells in to work, and will give them to the children and do some exploring, observing, and appreciating. Thanks, Tangaroa, for your beautiful gifts!