So we are now on the north end of the South Island. By the by, NZ is perhaps more properly known as Aotearoa, which is the Māori name for, originally, the North Island, with the whole country being referred to Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu. A big name. It has taken us a while to wrap our brains and mouths around these words, but it is pretty much like Hawaiian: Say all the vowels.
Anyway here we are, after a 30 minute flight from Wellington. We stayed outside of Takaka for the last 3 nights, known in the guidebooks as a, well, hippie town. Jim has concluded that if he wishes to live here he would need to get tattoos, wear surfer shorts and let his hair grow out. To get there, on the map looked like a fairly straight drive from the coast, but was in fact a somewhat nerve rattling run up and over the Takaka Hill, a road rife with hairpin turns and limestone caves. Karen and I white knuckled it in the back. Jim and Bryce snickered in the front. Drivers here are….good drivers, but there is seldom a posted speed limit unless to tell you to slow around the next Dead Man’s Curve, and they do drive fast. We tested it on a straight away today and all agreed it was far too fast. But I digress.
The main attraction on our first full day was the Farewell Spit. It runs 35km out to the north as a bird sanctuary and is closed off to the public. Lots of migratory birds we are told. Plan was to do a tour so we could get to the lighthouse on the end. Alas, the tour was canceled as the sand was too soft, and 2 rigs got stuck the day prior. No matter, we found 2 other beaches to check out: one with fossils and one with arches. To get there you have to hoof it across a private farm, or, as Jim says, a paleo shoreline, with public access. The wind was blowing sideways. The second access was in search of arches. And maybe seals. We never saw the seals, but saw the structure where the arch might be, but the wind was even crazier there so we bagged it and returned home. This was a cool walk but the feature that was remarkable to me was the trail in, which was on a steep hillside (sheep farm again ) and I halfway expected to see Frodo comes trotting around the corner or, more likely: that hillside that Wesley and Buttercup rolled down before they ended up in the swamp. You judge for yourself. I included the pic of a cafe with the arch so you can imagine the arch with me.
Oh and one more fact about Takaka: the fire engine/alarm goes out to the whole town and is easily audible. It sounds like a Tsunami alarm and the first time we heard it, I was very concerned as we are essentially on the beach. Turns out if they do a short alarm it is a lowly fire, only reason to leap out of bed in fear of earthquake or Tsunami is if the alarm persists. Good to know.
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