Saturday 18 March: Weather 15°C to 25°C fine and sunny
Bike ride to Farewell Spit: 65 k cycle
Accommodation: Herron’s Rest Collingwood
Low tide Golden Bay
Highlight was our 65k return bike ride to Farewell Spit and having coffee overlooking the landmark sandy spit named in 1770 by Captain James Cook as he left New Zealand at the end of his first visit.
Farewell Spit stretches 34km long, making it one of the longest natural sandspits in the world. A wetland of international importance, it has been a bird sanctuary since the 1930's and provides a home for over 90 bird species.
Breakfast on the patio at Herron’s Rest with our hosts providing muesli, toasted raisin bread and jam - so much to eat that we take some raisin toast for morning tea. Judy and Russell have kindly offered to loan us their mountain bikes and we’ve decided to ride the 25k out to the start of Farewell Spit - a famous nesting grounds for 300,000 birds on their way to Siberia. After adjusting seats and pumping up tyres we’re on our way.
Cycling to Farewell Spit
We’re a bit concerned about the busy road but although there’s some traffic, it’s all going our way with nothing coming back towards us so there’s plenty of room for cars to pass us safely. It’s a very pretty ride along the edge of Golden Bay. After a 2hr bike ride we’re at the Farewell spit cafe at 11.30am drinking a beautiful Cappuchino overlooking the spit.
There’s many guided eco tours using big aeroplane-sized tyres to drive tourists along the sandy spit that stretches for a further 20k. But we’re happy to sit and watch the goings on before heading back via View Road to the other side of the headland. It’s now high tide and the beach looks completely different. The road is a little busier with camper vans all going our way - from Farewell Spit back to Collingwood but with no traffic coming towards us. Again there was plenty of room to pass in safety.
Bird Migrations from Farewell Spit
Start of Farewell Spit
Low tide back to Collingwood
Rough road to Whanganui Inlet
Lunch spot Pakawau Hall
Very low tide - 5 metre drop
Washing and dinner Herron’s Rest
At Pakawau, we turn off the road to see the Whanganui Inlet on the other side of the headland. It was really not worth the extra 20k round trip on a mostly rough gravel road. It was a pleasant bike ride but just a large inlet with plenty of sandflies and lots of fishing boats coming and going. We stop to enjoy the view for a minutes break before the sandflies send us on our way.
Returning back to the main beach road, it’s lunch of raisin bread on the steps of the Pakawau Hall and then on to Collingwood and Herron’s Rest. More washing then back down the hill to buy a bottle of Sav Blanc and beer to have with our salad ham and pastrami for dinner.
Ian goes to sleep while I watch a corny religious movie - Redemption Ride - because it was advertised as a cycling movie. The plot was about Colter Reese who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and thought his professional cycling career was over. His son is dying of cancer and he has seemingly no purpose in life, so he begins to train again in the hopes of earning enough money to pay his hospital bills. Will he be able to find redemption? It was far from the standard of the latest Lance Armstrong movie The Program, and later I see it only scored 4.5 ion IMDB. But it filled in the night, then I’m in bed at 10pm.