{"id":9511,"date":"2024-04-07T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T08:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/?p=9511"},"modified":"2024-04-13T20:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T08:58:02","slug":"salt-in-the-air-sand-in-my-hair-farewell-spit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myblogary.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/07\/salt-in-the-air-sand-in-my-hair-farewell-spit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSalt in the air, sand in my hair.” Farewell Spit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first decent sleep in five days. A\/C! Yay!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a nice breakfast at Courthouse Cafe, same place we ate dinner at last night. There aren\u2019t many options for eating in this town; we lucked out in that it had very tasty food for both dinner and breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitch packed up the car and I took a little walk around town. Blink! One Main Street, a few shops, historic plaques and street art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Farewell Spit Eco Tour Office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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At 10:30 a.m. on a clear blue sky day, we boarded \u201cMaryann,\u201d our 1980 4WD converted and raised ski field bus for our 6.5 hour Farewell Spit Eco Tour. It was fitted with special souped up tires on a converted chassis along with retrofitted airbag hydraulics to help ease the bumps and lumps on the sand and road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our no nonsense guide Paddy is also a local volunteer firefighter. He was ready to share some stories with us. However, before we got underway he gave us the option for a full refund. He said if an earthquake happened while we were out on the spit, a tsunami would likely sweep us all away and our families would be reading about it in the news. So because of that concern, he gave everyone the option to get off and receive a refund. No takers and no scaredy cats. We took out our phones, texted the kids and family to say what we were up to and along with all the other brave tourists stayed aboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Paddy started up Maryann and drove away from town, he told us that tomorrow the tour leaves at 11:30 a.m. Some days it leaves at 3:00p.m. Other days, it\u2019s at 6 a.m. It\u2019s totally tide dependent because we will be driving on a spit, a narrow coastal land formation anchored to the coast at one end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This tour is the only way to access the entire length of the spit by vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farewell Spit<\/a> is an internationally renowned bird sanctuary. Leaving town we saw white-faced herons, black swans, pied oystercatchers and shags in the Aorere River estuary<\/a>. We saw godwits who fly 6,800 miles from Alaska for 12 days straight. We hadn\u2019t even arrived on the spit yet and we spotted all these birds on the bus ride out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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White-Faced Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Black Swans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pied Oyster Catcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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We also saw a cockle shell fishery and dredging baskets in the estuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NZ has exported cockles (NZ clams) to the USA for over 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first stop on the tour was Cape Farewell<\/a>, a sandstone bluff on the northernmost part of the South Island with steep drop offs. Getting to it was quite the interesting and bouncy drive in full power all-wheel drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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