On Boxing Day, three of us made a short kayak expedition along New Zealand’s Catlin Coast and found an unexpected little cove. We entered through a narrow channel between the rocks, judging the swell to get safely in. Masses of thick sea kelp clogged the water in startling green and yellow rafts, their giant fronds swirling and reaching, octopus-like, around the boats. Caves and rocky islets lined the cove and a young seal plopped into the water at our approach, while a fully-grown adult swam beneath one of the kayaks. On shore, a pair of sea-lion pups watched us cautiously but a family of nesting shags happily ignored the intruders. White royal spoonbills circled overhead against a cloudless blue sky: isolated, wild, unconstrained- striking a blurred edge between the sea and the land.