A rainy grey day - very misty and not very inspiring - but the light is bright. Even though this means that there are no strong shadows, I hope that my pictures convey the quite striking wind-sculpturing of the shrubs along the south coast. Houghton Bay is a small enclosed bay subject to strong southerly winds which funnel in and batter the plants which fringe it. This view is looking south, and the hedge-like formation of the shrubs at the edge of the road almost obscures the cars driving along. 
The shrubs, pittosporums and brighter green Coprosma repens, are moulded and shaped in ridges by the southerly wind. Looking in the other direction, the sculptured ridges are even more evident:
It is interesting to contrast these 
weather-made hedges with some human-made ones which are a very determined wind shelter strategy - staggered blocks of shrubs clipped in straight lines disrupt the blast of the wind and create a sheltered space for a garden and chicken coop, and a cyclindrical hedge encloses what I think is a studio.
These hedges, human and wind-made, are tough and functional.
To my eye they are also living sculptures - less decorative than topiary and not needing artistic validation through deeper meaning, but being a dramatic illustration of the impact of the energy that is manifest in the wind and the weather.