The journey over Takaka Hill was cloudy and wet. Every bridge we crossed had brown streams and rivers sweeping dramatically under them. Loads of paddocks and orchards looked sodden.
We made camp in Pakawau, a lovely campsite on the beach. Poor owner had been booked out for Easter, but had had heaps of cancelations due to the weather.
We spent our afternoon working through sticker books, doing cardboard crafts, baking shortbread, and taking silly photos of ourselves (as you do) because the rain has been solidly falling all day. Next day, the rain miraculously stopped after three whole days!
We went for a big walk along Pakawau beach looking at all the star fish that had been washed up. Got caught in a brief rain shower, but it was so good to get out of the caravan and get some fresh air, we didn't mind!
Jumped in the car and drove about 15 minutes to Farewell Spit. You can't drive all the way out there - the spit is about 35 kms long - and you have to have a permit to drive out there. Tours are about $150 per person, so we just trekked along the beach and got right out to the dunes instead. It was awesome!
Amazing landscape and really windy, but very cool. On the way back along the beach (on the not so windy side of the spit ) there were at least 100 black swans. There were also HEAPS of tiny fish. The whole way along the beach, they were swimming in the shallows beside us. It was neat.
We came home for a rest (well, the grown ups, at least, PB found about 7 campground kids to play with. Hooray for the school holidays!).
Then in the afternoon, we made our way to Cape Farewell. This is the northern most tip of the South Island, and given we had previously made it to Slope Point, the southern most tip of the South Island, we were quite chuffed.
We drove around to Wharariki beach and walked the 20 mins walk to a beautiful beach. Made our way over to the rock pools and were rewarded with a view of baby seals playing in the water. Magic!
On the way back PB came to grief on a muddy and slippery patch in a paddock. He was a bit upset about falling over in cow poo, so DH was trying to take his mind off it by teasing him that maybe it wasn't cow poo, maybe it was PB's poo... PB came out with "Don't be weird." Gave us a wee chuckle on the way back to the car.
On the way home we saw Old Man Rock. The way the light fell on the rock made it really stand out. On the way out we had tried to see it, but coming back he was right there looking at us! A very big day and two tired boys are sound asleep.
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