Before we even left home, we decided to do the Farewell Spit tour, as we were leaving the dogs at home. Today was the day, and we could not have had a better day for it – almost no wind, which is a rarity on the west coast. The end of the spit is only able to be visited using the official tour, and they are the only ones with permission from the Conservation Department. We had to be at their offices at 8.30am and I was a bit surprised at the number of people there – two 4 wheel drive buses and 60 people. I had collected a brochure the day before and was pleased to see that some of the places to be visited today were places that we had decided against visiting the other day.
The first stop on the tour was to a place called Fossil Point. There are supposed to be fossils there that are 70 million years old, but to be honest, Bruce and I struggled to find any. However, we enjoyed the chance to stretch our legs and look around the beach.
As we made our way along the Spit we had our attention drawn to the birds – terns (White Fronted; Black Fronted and Caspian); dotterels and gulls – all of which we have seen at home in our little bay. There were a couple of seals today though
and more unusually, some Spotted Shags (which are fairly rare)
and some white herons
We also saw a flock of Spoonbills but they were too far away to see clearly; and there was a nesting site for gannets also too far away to see clearly.
The next stop was to the lighthouse out on the Spit. This was originally built in 1869, but was rebuilt in the 1890’s as the original timber base did not survive the elements. It was manned until 1984. One of the original light house keepers planted and nurtured some macrocapra pines here to provide some shelter from the incessant wind and sand, and they have done an amazing job.
After a coffee and a muffin we drove a little further out to the end of the Spit before back tracking, and making a stop at a large dune. The landscape here is much like a desert – sand everywhere.
Before long we were off again, making our way to Cape Farewell, which is the most northern part of the South Island, and bout 30kms north of Wellington. this was a truly spectacular place. The colour of the water was amazing, and the cliffs very steep. What was notable was the lack of barriers – people were trusted to keep a safe distance from the edge!
We were then brought back to Collingwood, and we came back to camp. The weather today has been great but the forecast for tomorrow is anything but, so we elected to wait out the weather here.
What a difference 24 hours makes. The rain started at about 11pm, and continued until 2pm the next day. The river now looks like this
Away From Home NZ 