Day 15 (10th November) – Golden Bay

This morning we met a pukeko! This is a pretty blue bird the size of a hen with a bright red beak. It very elegantly strutted through the long grass but when I threw it some bread it picked it up with the ugliest gnarled red claw I’ve ever seen! We stopped off in Takaka for supplies and headed up the coast to Collingwood, the place of Rosy Glow Chocolates: lovingly hand made and sold from a wee pink cottage by the beach. Yum! The rain cleared as we reached Farewell Spit at the very top of South Island. This is a renowned bird sanctuary and protected wetland area with a 26km long beach and huge sand dunes which can only be reached through a tour company. The café at the top was closed so we took photos of as much of it as we could see alongside the skeleton of an unfortunate beached pilot whale. Travelled a further 7km along an unsealed road to take a walk across farmland onto a dramatically remote windswept beach. Here we encountered the unlikely meeting of sheep, seals, horses and blue jellyfish-like sea creatures.