Dear all 
The big pull for this area is the remarkable Farewell Spit and it was on our way to visit this, that my trust Canon G10 decided to gasp its last breath and the lens jammed open not to be moved by anything. So now I am without a camera until I can find somewhere that I can replace it (probably Wellington). Now as most of you know for me to be without a camera is like I've lost a limb. I always carry one and take thousands of photo's every year so I feel a little bereft today. 
Farewell spit is a 26km crescent shaped beach which protects a huge saltmarsh, home to thousands of migratory waders from the arctic tundra. The panoramic views along the spit and back across golden bay to Takaka Hill are bleak, but beautiful. We had a short walk along the beach, but it is a little repetative so I decided to walk across to fossil bay on the northern side of hte spit which allegedly has a number of fossilised shellfish on the mud rocks, but I couldn't find them. What I did find struck me to the core. Some imbecile had let a dog loose on a beach (which are banned in this area anyway), where it had found and mutilated about 5-6 tiny little blue penguins in their beach burrows.
Back at the car park I had placate a very pissed of Dean who thought I had falled off a cliff I had been gone so long.
Couldn't have put it better myself. Albeit I had a mussel chowder washed down with a rough apple cider yum yum. It was lovely and helped to ease my 'bad' morning. To work off our full bellies we went to the amazing Pupu springs one of the clearest, cleanest springs in the world. Pumping out over 14,000 litres per second - yep thats no a typo! its also believed to have healing powers, but as it all fenced off from the public I can't confirm that!! LOL. What was not so great was Harwards Hole, a very long drive via an unsealed road where scenes from LOTR were filmed, then a very beautiful long walk through a wood to a massive pile of huge rocks that were on the edge of the hole. You couldn't see the bottom and it was a spectacular anticlimate to the end of the day, but hey ho you can't have everything!
We woke this morning to find that two chickens and a peacock had taken refuge from the hot early morning sun under the van - not something you expect to find in such a remote location!
The big pull for this area is the remarkable Farewell Spit and it was on our way to visit this, that my trust Canon G10 decided to gasp its last breath and the lens jammed open not to be moved by anything. So now I am without a camera until I can find somewhere that I can replace it (probably Wellington). Now as most of you know for me to be without a camera is like I've lost a limb. I always carry one and take thousands of photo's every year so I feel a little bereft today. 
Farewell spit is a 26km crescent shaped beach which protects a huge saltmarsh, home to thousands of migratory waders from the arctic tundra. The panoramic views along the spit and back across golden bay to Takaka Hill are bleak, but beautiful. We had a short walk along the beach, but it is a little repetative so I decided to walk across to fossil bay on the northern side of hte spit which allegedly has a number of fossilised shellfish on the mud rocks, but I couldn't find them. What I did find struck me to the core. Some imbecile had let a dog loose on a beach (which are banned in this area anyway), where it had found and mutilated about 5-6 tiny little blue penguins in their beach burrows. These little guys are not in danger or anything, with about 350,000 on mainland NZ alone, so are not protected, but it was the savage nature of the attack and that who ever was with the dog had not done anything to stop it. There were dog prints and a few human prints in the sand which is how we surmised the events. Luckily a elderly man from Nelson arrived with his sister shortly after me and had a mobile to call DOC. How people can do such things is beyond me. I am sorry to sound off here but these sort of things affect me greatly and this is a story of our travels good and bad.....
Back at the car park I had placate a very pissed of Dean who thought I had falled off a cliff I had been gone so long.We quickly got back on the road and headed through Collingwood the last town in this part of the country and down towards the wonderful Mussel Inn where to quote LP 'a rustic tavern-cafe-brewery. Theres music performed every week and its brews it own ginger beer and lemonade. A big bowl of mussels has restorative properties especially when washed down with a Captain Cooker - a brown beer brewed naturally with Manuka'.
Couldn't have put it better myself. Albeit I had a mussel chowder washed down with a rough apple cider yum yum. It was lovely and helped to ease my 'bad' morning. To work off our full bellies we went to the amazing Pupu springs one of the clearest, cleanest springs in the world. Pumping out over 14,000 litres per second - yep thats no a typo! its also believed to have healing powers, but as it all fenced off from the public I can't confirm that!! LOL. What was not so great was Harwards Hole, a very long drive via an unsealed road where scenes from LOTR were filmed, then a very beautiful long walk through a wood to a massive pile of huge rocks that were on the edge of the hole. You couldn't see the bottom and it was a spectacular anticlimate to the end of the day, but hey ho you can't have everything!Night all
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