If you are a plant and you are living along the south coast here, you are resilient and tenacious, or have lucked into a sheltered and auspicious spot. Salt spray and battering winds cause physical harm and desiccation and the rocky shore and cliffs offer very little soil to anchor your roots. Nevertheless, many plants survive and some even flourish. Plants have evolved a variety of tactics to manage this feat - for example having leaf structures which reduce water loss from transpiration. The long thin leaves of grasses growing along the sandy dunes bend with the wind and limit dehydration. Their deep roots hold on to the sand and have the effect of stabilising the dunes. I think that these very functional plants also look very fetching outlined by the golden light of the late afternoon.
High tide at Lyall Bay, late afternoon - grasses holding the dunes.