After enjoying some nice New Zealand wine, we headed back to the NW corner of the South Island, to Golden Bay.  We stayed at a nice holiday home overlooking the large, beautiful bay that ends at Farewell Spit, the long sand spit marking the NW corner of the island.  On our first morning there, we had a rip snorter of a storm, with pelting rain, wind and waves.  The owners of the holiday house lived about 1 1/2 east and had their greenhouse blown down by the wind.  We had not experienced a good storm yet in NZ, so this was a welcome change.  By early afternoon, the clouds had cleared and we headed up to Wharariki Beach on the west coast near the spit.  This was another walk-through-the-sheep-pasture to get to the south end of the beach.  The water was still roiling from the aftermath of the storm and for a time, we had the beach to ourselves.  There were a number of caves and walk-throughs to explore before we headed north up the beach.  At the north end of the beach was a large rock pool that was filled with about 10 seal pups, playing in the water and entertaining the crowd.  We could get quite close and they were really fun to watch.

This was the view of Golden Bay from our holiday home.  I think the house was my favorites so far.

Wharariki Beach was amazing.  The sea was still rough from the storm and it was still very windy.

One of several caves that had been carved by the sea.

We had this huge beach virtually to ourselves and the seal pups.

The seal pups playing in a shallow tidal pool.

This video is of the beach and the seal pups playing in the tidal pool.

Day 2 started again with another good storm and this one lasted longer into the day.  But when it had partially cleared, we headed back up to Farewell Spit.  This walk started through another sheep pasture, then up the ocean side of the sand spit itself.  We then crossed over the spit and came back via the inland beach on Golden Bay.

On the Golden Bay side of the peninsula looking north out Farewell Spit.  While you can not see it in the photo the spit extends off the picture to the right.  It is a VERY long curving spit.

You can not hike very far out the spit as it is a bird sanctuary.  You can, however get a guided tour if you want to get further out the peninsula.

It is low tide and Golden Bay is quite shallow so at low tide you get these large expanses of mud/sand flats that the wading birds love.

Day 3 was sunny and clear and we decided to do the Hilltop Track that started back at Wharariki Beach.  And they weren’t kidding.  This 3 1/2 hour track first went straight up to the top of the bluffs overlooking the Tasman Sea.  Then it went up hill and down dale, and up hill and down dale, again and again and again, all through sheep pasture with no proper track.  At the top of each steep knoll, there was a tall, orange two by four stuck in the ground.  We would climb up to the pole, look down the other side and up the next knoll to locate the next pole.  And so it went.  We kept expecting Julie Andrews to come singing around the corner at any moment.  The views out into the ocean were outstanding.  By the end of this one, I really had an appreciation of the climbing those sheep do in order to get a good bit of grass.  But it was a very fun hike, tramping through the fields, up and down.

Wharariki Beach is to our left.  We never made it out to the beach this time we turned north along this little trail.  The hills in the background, on the left are where we are headed.

We had to ford a little stream to leave the beach area and start up the hills.  You can see the DOC sign across the stream.

Viewing Wharariki Beach from the track.

Just beautiful bluffs along the coast.  The round hill at the right has a little light house on the top which is our destination.  We hiked down to the car from there.

Cape Farewell is the most northerly point on the south island.

What can I say.  Beautiful.

Note the orange pole behind Barb and the one on the hilltop.  This is how we found our way.  The track was well marked with these orange poles.  As for an actual trail, you just had to make your way though the sheep and sheep sh*t.  🙂

This picture was taken from the lighthouse and is looking out onto Farewell Spit.  You can see how it bends off to the right.  I think this was one of my favorite hikes.

Our cul-de-sac neighbors, the Wardells, happened to be on a month driving tour of the South Island and at the very last moment, we arranged to meet them in Hanmer Springs for the evening.  So after a 5 hour drive the next day over Lewis Pass, we arrived in Hanmer Springs, a small resort town built around a hot springs in the middle of town.  We went in to check out the springs before donning some suits and ran into the Wardells.  So we spent about three hours in the various hot pools, catching up and comparing notes on the various places we had visited in NZ.  That evening we had dinner together a  local pub before going our separate ways.

I’m afraid I do not have any pictures of our encounter with the Wardells.  We were in the hot pools and a camera did not seem like a good idea.  Rob did take one picture that I need to get my hands on.  This is main street Hanmer Springs.

We were both heading back to Christchurch, the Wardells to catch a flight to Melbourne, and we were returning to the Stacey’s for one night to claim our dive bag that they had very nicely allowed us to leave in their garage, as well as to regale them with our tales of the prior two months.  On our way back, we stopped at Amberly Beach to eat our lunch and found the Wardells seated on the beach front bench, finishing up their lunch.  So we munched on our tuna sandwiches and shared book recommendations.  Before invading the Staceys, we left our car at the garage where we purchased it, to check out a few squeaks here and there.  Then off to the Staceys.  We all went out for hamburgers and it was fun to see the whole family again.  After a good night’s sleep in their guest room, we picked up the car to drive back to Blenheim, before catching the ferry from Picton to Wellington on the North Island.