New Zealand is still a relatively poorly explored country when it comes to shell collecting, particularly the South Island. So I decided to “invite” myself to visit our friend Andrew Grebneff in Dunedin and see what we could find.

Andrew had always told me that there were not enough shells in his area to make a collecting trip worthwhile. Well, I think he changed his mind after Carlos Henckes and I managed to find so many interesting shells with him!

As soon as we arrived at the airport, we saw warnings everywhere about bringing fruit, seeds, animal products and even shells into the country. This was my third trip to New Zealand, so I already knew that we had to declare the shells we were bringing for Andrew — some marine species and a few land shells.

Customs officials inspected everything. After I managed to convince them that the only marine gastropod listed under CITES that concerned us was Strombus gigas — which obviously could not have fitted inside the tiny plastic container they were examining — they decided that eight of the land shells would have to be kept for “fumigation” to prevent possible biological contamination.

I tried to explain that we had thoroughly cleaned the shells with bleach and that there was absolutely no animal tissue left inside them, but they took them anyway. Andrew planned to request their return later, although I never found out whether he succeeded.

So, if you ever enter New Zealand carrying shells: declare them!

Of course, it was far too cold for us to dive. It was only March and winter was still some distance away — remember, this is the Southern Hemisphere — but freezing underwater was definitely not part of my plans. We therefore concentrated on collecting at low tide.

We also obtained some trawled material, including beautiful Chlamys delicatula, C. dichroa and C. dieffenbachi, as well as some excellent Buccinidae and other interesting shells.

The diversity in the intertidal zone was surprisingly good, particularly the beautiful limpets and Trochidae. Andrew took us to several beaches near Dunedin, and the exceptionally good tides made collecting even better.

Many of those beaches were almost completely deserted. We could crawl around among the rocks looking for shells and shout whenever one of us found something interesting without worrying that somebody would call an ambulance and have us taken to an asylum.

The wind, however, was freezing. It was about 9°C in the morning, which felt particularly cold considering that we had just come from São Paulo, where it had been around 30°C.

One morning, Andrew drove us to a beautiful rocky beach only a few minutes away. At low tide, we climbed over the rocks without too much difficulty, and there was enough exposed ground to keep our feet dry.

Then the tide began coming in.

Suddenly, we had to jump from one rock to another — not an easy task when carrying collecting equipment, bags of shells, digital cameras and heavy coats, while at the same time trying very hard not to fall into freezing water.

And these were not nice, smooth rocks. They were razor-sharp volcanic rocks.

Carlos and I both ended up with a few cuts on our hands, but at least neither of us got wet!

One afternoon, Andrew took us into the hills around Dunedin to look for land shells.

Did I ever mention that I hate collecting land shells?

Why?

Spend several hours crawling around in the forest only to emerge with four or five itty-bitty, tiny, microscopic — all right, enough adjectives — shells, and you will understand.

This was one of those occasions. We found a few Charopidae beneath pieces of rotten wood and eventually decided to leave before our fingers froze completely and the mosquitoes finished removing whatever blood we had left.

The shelling was excellent — the marine shelling, that is — but the scenery was just as impressive. There were enormous cliffs, beautiful deserted beaches and remarkably clean surroundings.

At the same time, the countryside was never far away. While driving up one hill, we had to stop and wait for a flock of sheep to cross the road, guided by a shepherd and his dogs.

Very bucolic!

On the last day of our trip, we visited the Otago Museum. It was an excellent museum, with many interactive exhibits — I don't remember seeing a single “Do Not Touch” sign.

In the anthropology section, we found several artifacts made with shells from the Cook Islands, which happened to be our next destination.

A few days later, we would be snorkeling there ourselves, first in Rarotonga and then in Aitutaki — but those are stories for the Cook Islands articles.