Wharariki Beach and Fairwell Spit

So, I’ve been up as far as Collingwood and the oh-so-wonderful Mussel Inn, (awful website, great pub!)… but I’d never been up to the very top of the South Island – to Fairwell spit.

First thing we did was to go to Wharariki Beach and have a potter about. We saw seals playing in the river which was a bonus. We didn’t *quite* get there at low tide, which prevented us from being able get right the way around – but still, good times.

Stunning spot. Also, on my friend Neil Charters’ advice, we did the “Cliff Top Walk”, which starts on the Eastern end of Wharariki beach. It was absolutely stunning. The *scariest* part, by far, was the lovely Japanese? tourists who followed Maaike and I up. There was one part where we were on two sides of one of these massive cliffs and they’d either ignored? or not understood (just as likely) the sign that said “Cliffs!”… . Maaike and I started waving to “get the hell away from there”, but our hero took that as a friendly hello and waved back, taking pictures with his SLR. I’m sure it would have all been find, and it was, but yeah, I was really quite scared that there was bugger all I could do to stop this guy getting a better shot and walking straight off the cliff. You’re in New Zealand now buddy, no barriers here!

That archway in the picture above is the most Northerly point on the South Island..

Anyway, then it was back to the carpark for sambos (where we were rudely interrupted by this peacock who was definitely not afraid of humans!)

Next it was on to Fairwell Spit. This place is awesome.. it’s a 30km? ish long sand bar. Now fully protected for birdlife (migratory mainly), you can walk on part of it

To get out further on it, you have to go on a tour. This is partly presumably revenue generating, but mostly to keep the numbers down and protect the wildlife.

We saw lots of these guys – there was a pair spaced pretty much every 2km up the beach. They’re called variable oystercatchers.

The variable oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor, torea or toreapango) is found on rocky and sandy beaches. It is rare – there were around 3,500 birds in 1994, and they are found only in New Zealand.

Rare maybe, but definitely hilarious. This guy here standing on one leg:

It’s not actually that he’s an amputee, no, he’s just sleeping and resting one leg. His body acts as a wind vein and we actually drove the van around him (blocking the wind) and he turned with us, hilarious to watch.

The other classic thing was when two “families” came in contact. They’re all extremely protective of their patch of beach (all 2km of it) as there’s only so much food to go around. Unfortunately I ran out of memory card, but basically, they walk up to eachother and bob up and down… until they work it all out.

We went as far as the lighthouse There were some great stories about the lives of the people who ran the place back-in-the-day. Hardy folk. Sad in a way that it’s all remotely managed from Wellington now. But probably good from a cost, safety and reliability perspective ;)

Finally it was time to go back to the van and start the drive to our next adventure. Beautiful sunset – long long sandy beach! Happy days.