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Published: April 30th 2011
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It was going to be a long drive up to Farewell spit so we started out fairly early. It was a bit overcast so we were hoping it would clear up so we could have a nice walk on the spit. The drive towards farwell spit went over the Takaka hills. When we got to the top of the first ‘hill’ we went up there were great views back down to Motueka and across to Nelson. There was some fabulous views out across to the oceans as well - again the photos just don’t do it justice!!
Part of the drive heads along the coast of Golden Bay. This is actually a number of beaches and bays that make up the area of coastline. All the beaches are sandy and quite shallow so the tide goes out a long way. As we got closer to the spit we stopped for lunch next to a deserted beach, so we had a picnic on the beach in the sunshine!!
Farewell spit is basically just a great big sandspit. Most of it isn’t open to the public except on organised tours as it is an internationally important bird colony and also home
to other wildlife colonies. There is about 2 ½ kms that you can walk on as Joe Public so we headed through farmland following the orange markers to get us to the sandy beach. Despite this being quite popular with tourists and a full car park, you couldn’t see many people and at some points we couldn’t see anyone else - which was great until we couldn’t find a way back through the dunes!! We had decided to walk along the beach and head across the dunes back to the visitor centre and the van, but there weren’t any signposts to get us through the dunes to the other side!! After a couple of hours wandering around and through the dunes amidst sand that kept giving way under foot we eventually found our way across to the other side of the spit in order to head back to the van. The two sides of the spit couldn’t be more different. One side has the wild Tasman sea beating its golden sandy beach whilst the other is sedate and sheltered with a shallow beach full of wildlife!
We headed back towards Motueka (as there is only one road up to
Farewell Spit) but stopped at Pupu springs on the way. These are said to be the clearest water that s possible. It has the furthest underwater visibility that is possible underwater. The pool looks really shallow but is actually quite deep but because of the clarity of the water it is really deceiving. There is a periscope under the water to show how far you can see and exactly how clear the water is.
It was starting to get late in the day so we stopped in Takaka at a little motor park which was basically just in someone’s back garden!! It didn’t look much but it was very neat and tidy, however they did have the best showers we had experienced in New Zealand since we had arrived, so we took full advantage of that fact with 2 showers each!! How big the little things become when you’ve been sleeping in a van for the past 2 months!!
The following morning we headed straight to Marahau and Old Macdonald’s farm camping ground at the edge of Abel Tasman National Park as we had booked to go out kayaking the following day so needed to be at the
campsite and decided that getting there early would mean we could get some washing done and just relax after some high mileage days. It was an early start for the kayaking so we headed down to the meeting place for our safety briefing and to collect the gear. We hired a kayak to take out ourselves rather than taking a tour, but they insist on doing a full safety briefing as they are ocean kayaks with spray decks so need to know you can get yourself out if you capsize! Luckily it was a lovely sunny day with little wind so we didn’t think it would be too problematic!! Eventually we got down to launch and the guys from Independent Guides (the company we went with) checked out that we could steer and paddle correctly before sending us on our way. We were given a map but to be honest there wasn’t much to navigate!! We headed straight out to the two islands in the bay and stopped briefly in one of the sandy bays for a snack, we couldn’t stay any longer as the tide was still coming in and we were about to lose all of the beach!
Next we headed around the larger of the two islands as I thought there was a long sandy bay on the other side to stop in - forgetting that the tide was in and the bay would be under water!! I also wanted to see if there were any seals about in the water or on the rocks. It was a bit more of a battle around the outside of the island as there was no protection from the current or the wind! Having already been out on the water for a couple of hours we headed into one of the secluded bays on the mainland. The only way to reach these bays is via boat (or Kayak) or by walking through the national park, so there isn’t many people on any of the beaches in the park. We stopped for lunch and made friends with a seagull who nearly ate pieces of apple out of our hands. After a couple of hours sunbathing and relaxing we decided to head back to shore. We weren’t really sure how long it would take us to get back and the tide was also going out so we didn’t want to get stranded
and have to drag the kayak up and over the sand for too long! As it happened we timed it perfectly to get back into the boat ramp without having to drag to kayak across the sand but we were about ¾ hour early for our pick up time. By this time we were both a little cold and the wind was picking up!! We headed back to the campsite and had a shower to warm us up. We then headed to the pub for a drink in order to have a change from sitting in the van for the night and to decide where we were heading tomorrow!!
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