We asked people around the country to send us stories in their own words about what they have discovered along the coastline. Here is a selection in which the beachcomber has come across clues to past events.
What's your story?
False alarm
You can read too many war comics as a child – as Maurice Lye found out when he explored at Kaitorete Spit, south of Christchurch.
Old battleground
At this beach near the Mimi River mouth on the north Taranaki coast, in 1975, Dave Ellis learned a little about the history of the area.
Missing mooring
A scientific mooring, with sensors attached, is lowered into the ocean to collect information about ocean currents. Craig Stevens reports on a mooring found half buried in sand, on the coast near Hokianga Harbour entrance.