The Jackson Bay sandflies are huge….
But this is not actually a sandfly.
It is a urepetala carovei…a New Zealand bush giant dragonfly. This incredible flying machine can grow up to 86mm long and have a wingspan of 130mm.
We spotted this sunbathing on a log at Ocean Beach, just over the hill from Jackson Bay.
Jackson Bay is at the end of the road…at the southern end of the north to south road on the West Coast.
Down here the sandflies are huge, and normally very hungry. The weather is often unpredictable but the mood is always quintessentially West Coast.
Jackson Bay was originally named Open Bay by Captain James Cook way back in the dim dark ages. Sometime after that, for reasons unknown, Open Bay became Jackson’s Bay, with the possessive (i.e. the apostrophe) being dropped in the early days of settlement of the area.
Today Jackson Bay is home to a small fleet of fishing boats, with crayfish being probably the most popular catch.
In fact, the Craypot is the main centre of attraction in Jackson Bay. Once a pie cart in Timaru, the Craypot is now a casual seafood restaurant overlooking the Jackson Bay foreshore.
Just over hill from Jackson Bay is Ocean Beach, accessible via an easy bush walk of 20 or so minutes. Take a bike if you prefer…it’s well worth a visit.
Even on a dull day, such as when we were there, there is some colour in Jackson Bay, provided by the cray pot buoys stored in waiting to be taken out to sea to land the next catch.
All images were captured with a Panasonic LUMIX G95 micro four-thirds camera, mated with a Lumix 12-60mm zoom lens.
