Wharariki

Today we left Motueka and headed towards Farewell Spit. I was driving today and the first obstacle was meeting a big truck on a narrow two way bridge. Unfortunately, I had not seen it coming before I entered the bridge. I had to stop, pull my mirror in and we squeezed past with cms to spare. Some self entitled man in a car a few behind the truck yelled out “idiot” to me as we drove past him. I stopped on the other side of the bridge to collect myself again, and also to let other cars pass, but it was a bit unnerving.

The Takaka Hill is no less steep or windy than it was the last time we travelled it. we had a brief stop for lunch in the township of Takaka itself before carrying on. Bruce wanted to spend a couple of nights at the Old School Cafe Park Over Property, and we arrived there at about 3pm. However, we could not see the point in sitting there looking at a paddock of cows for a couple of days so we carried on.

First we headed out to the Whanganui Inlet, which comes off the West Coast side of the spit. We could have gone around it for abut 40kms on a metal road, but figured the scenery would not be much different, so after a quick look we came back again.

Next we headed towards the Puponga Farm Park.

There was a small rest area just at the entrance to the park and we stopped there for a look and a coffee before deciding our next move.

We read about the Wharariki Arches, and decided to head that way. There was a motor camp there so I rang and booked us in – big mistake! The service at the front counter was brusque, to say the least. There was no internet, no water, no rubbish disposal and long drop toilets that had never been cleaned. Had we realised there was a big carpark area for the Arches, we would not have gone into the camp.

Anyway, after setting up camp we put on our walking shoes and walked the one km track to the Arches. You go over a private sheep farm, and through a bit of scrubby bush, to reach the massive sand dunes at the beach. The walk was very popular, and the carpark was fairly busy. Unfortunately, the tide was coming in, so not the ideal time to visit the Arches, but it was spectacular just the same.

Apparently there are frequently seals in the area, but none today. The beach is wide, with clean white sand. The islands are made of a sandy, gravelly conglomerate type of rock, so there were several areas where the sea had worn a channel through the base, hence the formation of the arches.

In the distance we could see Cape Farewell, which also has an arch. We read that these arches are the most photographed arches in NZ and are often seen on calendars and even as an image in Google.

We enjoyed exploring and as the sun was getting lower in the sky, the light patterns around the islands were beautiful – it looked like the island was sitting in a pool of glitter.

We meandered our way back to camp, and although we had a peaceful (but cold) night there, we could not wait to get away from this particular camp.