Our first venture this morning took us further along the coast towards Abel Tasman Park. This area has a 3km stretch where penguins live and we wanted to try to get a picture of one. It isn't exactly the right time of year but it looked like it would be a nice drive. So off we went. We didn't see any penguins but we did take some nice pictures.
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| Pohara Beach |
After a few miles and no penguins we turned around and headed for the north tip of South Island. Our destination was Farewell Spit which is the longest sandspit in New Zealand. Starting at Fossil Point the great arc of sand stretches eastward across Golden Bay for 27 kilometers.
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| Middle of Farewell Spit |
The drive to the spit was not giving us a lot of confidence in our selection of places to be. It was very overcast and sprinkled rain in a few places. It started to rain quite hard as we pulled into the I Site which is at the base of the spit. The best solution at this point was to have lunch and see what happens, maybe it would clear up. No such luck, after lunch it was still raining and quite hard. We decided to go anyway and as Kathy was putting on her raingear she commented. Just wait, as soon as I get all the stuff on it will quit raining. Thankfully she was right.
We started our hike along the shore of Golden Bay walking towards the Spit.
The beach was covered in shells but it was hard packed sand which made it pretty easy for walking. We walked for two kilometers along the beach before we turned towards the other coast which bordered on the Tasman Sea. We had to cross the spit to get to the other beach and this is where we first saw some of the sand dunes that make up the spit.
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| Dunes at Farewell Spit |
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| Dunes at Farewell Spit |
We crossed the spit and came to another hard packed beach and started walking down to Fossil Point. The beach was very clean with white sand that just rose up and blended in with the dunes. It was extremely picturesque.
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| Beach leading to Fossil Point |
It had turned into a beautiful day with just a slight breeze which made it great for tramping. As we got closer to Fossil Point I was surprised by a log that sat up.
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| We woke him up from his nap. |
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| He wasn't happy with us. |
He wasn't very happy with us and let us know it, so we stepped around him and carried on down the beach. We got to Fossil Point which was as far as we could go, took a few pictures and headed back.
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| Fossil Point |
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| Fossil Point |
There was an option in getting back to the car park. We could retrace our steps or head inland and hike over farm land. We chose the farmers pasture and started the climb and the return trip.
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| Start of return trip through pasture. |
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| At least we didn't have to climb fences |
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| Kiwi Rod had to scare away the big bad sheep |
We arrived back at the car park around 3 hours after we started the hike. It felt good.
Our next stop was at Cape Farewell, the sign says it all. The Cape was named by Captain Cook on one of his last voyages. The cape was the last land they say before reaching home.
A short way down the road we came to Wharariki Beach. Upon arriving at the car park, we found it was another hike to get there and I almost didn't go. This is New Zealand, there are no flat hikes. However the opportunity to photograph seals pushed us forward. Sometimes we make good decisions for the wrong reasons. The beach was stunning and well worth the walk, seals or no seals. Kathy and I agreed that it was the nicest beach we had seen during this trip. It is hard to paint a verbal picture that would accurately describe what we were seeing. The beach was huge and with the tide out it looked even more massive. It was surrounded by dunes that were 20 feet high on occasional and
ran back 50 – 100 yards from the beach. The rock islands rose up out of the surf right at the shore line breaking up the beach and giving it more character. As I said earlier, it was stunning.
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| It is 100 yards to the beach |
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| Foot prints on the dune |
There were seals present and they were playing in the surf. As a result we would only get a glimpse of a head every so often. There was one exception, a body surfing seal.
It was getting late so we hiked back to the van. We ended up spending around 1 1/2 hours at the beach. Thirty minutes in, thirty minutes walking the beach and 30 minutes out. Our legs were starting to feel it. The best alternative for us tonight would be to head back to the park we stayed in late night. Which is what we did, had a late supper and just relaxed. The day left us tired but very rewarded.
We also saw and photographed a couple of more birds from the area.
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| Yellow Hammer |
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| South Island Pied Oyster Catcher |
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| Male and Female Paradise Shelduck |
Excellent blog. I come from this area and your comments and photos are really appreciated.
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