Cape Farewell & Wharariki Beach & Farewell Spit

WelCape Back,

Today on my journey through Golden Bay I'm going to the northernmost point of the South Island and to one of the most famous beaches in the world - Wharariki Beach. This is one of the Windows background screens and you probably only know it with a jogger in the foreground.

There are various ways to get to this beach. One of them is a circular route that leads across various sheep meadows and along the cliffs. This takes about 2.5 hours and is a really pretty track that was very pleasant to walk, even though it was really windy.

The Cape Farewell track ends at one end of the beach and there was still a bit of sea separating me from the beach. Luckily there was a fallen tree that I could balance on. The water below was about 60cm deep and I was desperate to avoid falling. I used my two walking poles for support and made it to the other side with dry feet. Yehaaaaa!

It was super windy on the beach and I felt like I was in a windstorm in the desert (aka. a sandstorm). But since I'm always prepared, that wasn't a problem and I unpacked my "sand gear" and walked through the wind and sand, masked up.

The beach is also known for the fact that the little sea lions play in the pools on the beach. But this is only possible when the pools are there and that only happens at high tide. Unfortunately, as I was walking across the beach at low tide, I missed the spectacle. Luckily, I saw sea lions playing in Kaikoura, so it's not so bad that I missed it here.

After walking along this amazing beach and enjoying the sun and wind, I finished the track and drove back a few km to the northernmost point of the South Island.

This part of the South Island seems to consist only of sand and it would take several hours to walk to the end of this stretch of sand. There are certain tours that take small buses to a certain point at low tide but I skipped this tour because I preferred to walk a few steps across this stretch of land and I really enjoyed it. Also, a small fantail was my friend again on this track.

After this sandy day, I went back to the car and really enjoyed the days at the campsite on Poharu Beach. The sun also shone here every day and that was really pleasant.

On the way back I stopped at the Labyrinth Rocks. I'll put these in the next post, though, as they are very close to the campsite.

Until then, sandy greetings,
Your Britta