They cheated on the spit

However they had to pay big time to do so. But to begin at the beginning. Or at least as at the beginning as blogger ordering photos will let me. You will recall that yesterday was a tough drive over the Takaka Hill. (Note that when they say it's a wide road, remember this is an example of Kiwi humour. There are driveways in Calgary that are wider than most of that road.)

I did it again today, to get all the way up to Farewell Spit. There were a couple beaches we wanted to stroll.

1. This is the view from the parking area for Wharariki Beach. You have to hike about a Km up and over that hill. Then through some bush. Then through some dunes.

2. But you are rewarded with this view from the dunes.

3. Plus the obligatory artsy photo(s) taken in various parts of the dunes.

4.

5. Driftwood of the Day. I can see where this one might give people some funny ideas. It just so happens that the night before I watched chunks of Dune.

6. A closer view of those islands.

7. And closer yet.

8. More dunes.

9. Linda exploring a mostly quiet little shallow area.

From there we walked the inside of the spit, Linda going as far as the sign forbidding further access because of the seabird colony there. It wasn't that nice to walk, lots of shells on the beach and the driftwood was so-so, but the background usually killed the desired shot. Then we went across the dunes to the ocean side. What a difference!

10. Surprise! Another obligatory artsy shot from Ocean beach, on the (naturally) ocean side of Farewell Spit.

11. It was brilliant and harsh. There was a really strong wind lashing the sand along. Strong as in hard to walk in, and that's before the sting of the sand blasting. We were only there a few minutes and gave up. Linda was joking we had sandruff. If we'd got there first we might have toughed it out, but we'd already done lots of walking.

12. But it did make for interesting sand patterns.

13. Here's the cheat. For big dollars, people could ride a tour bus out to the beach and along to the end, viewing the sand in comfort. We earned our dinner! We laughed at them as we dodged getting run over. The practical side of me wonders what sort of filters they have on that engine.