The Farewell Spit

After visiting Wharariki Beach, I drove over to the beginning of the Farewell Spit, perhaps 1/2 hour away. Keep in mind that 20km of the drive from Wharariki beach is on a dirt road, so the two are really quite close.

Here's a picture from my flight from Auckland to Christchurch. The spit is the long white sliver on the right, near the leading edge of the wing. Since I had seen it from above and to the east, I wanted to see it from ground level from the west. There are two organised tours out to the end of the spit, but both opportunities entail six hours on a bus for the return trip. Perhaps another day.

These images were from a visitors' centre just north of Puponga, at the end of the unsealed road.

Here is a view of the spit looking towards the east, it was taken a little bit above sea level. At the beginning of the spit, there is a nice little café, and in information Center that provides information on both the spit, and the numerous whale beachings that have happened there.

At the far eastern end of the Farewell Spit, is a lighthouse. At one point, the lighthouse was manned, but it is now automatic. When the lighthouse was manned, the lighthouse keeper planted a number of time trees around the lighthouse facility. Primarily, the trees were there to screen the lighthouse from the wind. In this image, I pointed at an arrow towards the cluster of trees at the end of The Spit.

Two views of the spit, from sea level. The tide was out at this time.

This is a view of The Spit from sea level, looking towards the east. The sand, which is whiter than the sand further south in Golden Bay, begins here. The sands and that we are looking at here is the beginning of a long stretch of sand that extends through most of the farewell spit. This is the white strip that is visible in the aerial photo above.

A view of the spit, looking eastwards, from the hill immediately above the café. In this image, the tide is out. The arc of the spit is visible in the center of this image, below the cloud.