Farewell Spit is a narrow 26 km long sand spit at the northern end of Golden Bay. The first few kilometers can be publicly accessed. The rest only via a bus tour, including the lighthouse near the end of the spit. The red offroad bus uses the beach as a highway at low tide and the tour takes more than 4 hours total.
We had a quite windy day, which means the almost white sand was flying eastwards quicker than our bus could drive. But that made it a very special and exciting experience for us, watching how the landscape is transformed every day. The bus driver said that the sand is more than 200 m deep and the spit length increases by about 4 meters every year.
Every few kilometers we could see a pair of oyster catchers, marking their territory. On a few occasions we also had the opportunity to see fur seals and gannets. They all seemed unimpressed by the bus though. :) The ride ended at the lighthouse where we had a snack before we went back again.
