Day 8, vanlife, January 27, the tip of the South Island
We woke to drizzle this morning which soon afterwards progressed to rain which has persisted all day. No barrier to us intrepid adventurers though, we packed up and headed north again towards Farewell Spit and Wharariki. Farewell Spit is a 50km long sand spit stretching across the top of Golden Bay. All but 2km of it is closed to public access. If you want to go further out, you need to book a tour. We have done it in thenpast and it is very interesting with protected bird life, seals and other wildlife frequenting the area. Whales frequently get stranded due to the topography as well. Not for us today though. Today we kept going to Wharariki Beach.
The beach is a 20 minute walk from the end of the road and is a wild west coast beach with thundering surf, seals and rock arches molded by the sea. From the beach, you can climb up along the cliff tops for 2 or so kilometers to the northern most tip of the South Island, Cape Farewell. Given the rain and the wind, we decided this would be good training for our upcoming Routeburn walk. Raincoats on and off we went. Definitely not for the faint hearted, that's for sure! It was steep, slippery, exposed and at times a little bit scary. Great fun! The whole loop was just over 6km and took us a couple of hours.
By the time we got back to the van, we were drenched. We put up the awning and stripped off our wet gear. The great thing about a van is we have space to put the wet gear and hang the jackets under the awning while we had some lunch. Luxury!
Warm clothes on and we headed back to Takaka. Tonight we are staying at a NZ Motor Caravan Association campsite. These member only sites require vans to be fully self contained and cost $5pp per night. This one is situated right on the waterfront and has arranged access to the local boat club for toilets and showers. This saves us having to pull out our portapotti which we have ready for use if required but as yet have not needed. It's another lovely spot and the rain has stopped finally!
Mountain biking is on the agenda for tomorrow.
Add comment
Comments