Farewell Spit

THE INNLET and FAREWELL SPIT (14th-16th Jan)

After 4 nights of not much sleep in the tent, I was looking forward to a lie in - Nik wakes me up saying it's 9 o'clock, we have to be out by 10 and the place looks like a cross between a Chinese laundrette and a bomb site! We're up packing for an hour before I look at my watch and it's only 8 am!!!

We travel further round the north coast to Farewell Spit which is the northern most point of the south island. We find the most amazing hostel called The Innlet.


It's a real hippy place with a log burner, comfty old sofas, a large terrace in the sun, outside bath tubs by the river and outside "composting" loos (ie hole in the ground). It's so nice we stay for 2 nights but feel we could stay for much longer.

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We went on an Eco Tour of the Spit (30km sand spit which you're not allowed to walk on) in a large 4 wheel drive bus, driven by our guide who looks like a real old man of the wild.

Our vehicle looks something out of Thunderbirds. Our driver is a cross between Rolf Harris and Bill Odie. He's full of cheery stories. 1) The week when they kept finding manta rays on the sand with only one wing left - they were being ripped off by Killer Whales who were flinging the rays onto the beach ... for fun. 2) All the pilot whales that strand themselves on the sand flats at low tide (152 of them in December) ((the smell of the dead carcasses is unbearable)) - the ones they can't save cos they're too far out they shoot. 3) The leopard seals that batter baby fur seals on the surface of the water till they turn their skins inside out and eat their flesh. As our guide keeps on reminding us .."It's not Disneyland out there."