Another early start this time to get to Collingwood to pick up our 4WD bus which was going to take us onto Farewell Spit.
We were on the bus with 6 other people, I say bus it was infact an old army Bedford van that had been seriously modified into the above!
Our first trip was to Cape Farewell the farthest Northerly point on the south island, we stopped for a photo op
By this point on the trip we had noticed that two older ladies on the trip appeared to be displaying some form of tourettes and for every comment our driver made they had to shout a reply to the whole bus. It was a bit like those American Evangelical programmes and for every driver comment there was a "Hell yeah" or a "Sure is" coming from the back seats.
WE drove onto the start of the spit, normal vehicles aren't allowed on the spit and you are only allowed to walk the first 4km, but we were going to drive the full length down to the lighthouse.
The place was really peaceful and the only people there were us and loads of wildlife, I'll not bore you with the long list of birds we saw!
At the light house we stoppede for a cuppa in the old lighthouse keepers cottage before heading back along the spit:
On the trip back our driver pulled up next to a dead leopard seal which had been washed up. Apparently he has a tooth collection at home, that's the sort of comment that should put chills down your spine, but he seemed ok so we jumped out of the bus to help retrieve the teeth. This really isn't something you see everyday and we got a pretty cool video of it - not as gruesome as you would think - although at one point tourettes lady rams her fingers into the decaying creature and removes a cheek bone whilst screaming "Hell yeah a cheek bone!" - she really was weird!
Next stop was a huge sand dune which we were allowed to climb, the only one on the spit as it's all a bird sanctuary. I think this was Michelle's highlight as once at the top we got to run down the sheer edge of the dune.
We powered back to Collingwood and I spotted a Spoonbill in the river just outside the town. I got really excited about it as I'd read that Spoonbills are only really seen in Autumn so I hadn't expected to see any, so it was a nice treat.
You'd think that all the excitement would be over once the trip had finished, but no, the drive home was an adventure in itself.
We had to cross a mini mountain range which involved a few sharp S bends, this wasn't too bad in the daylight, but on the way back it was dark and at the top of the mountain there was some thick low cloud which meant I couldn't see more than 1 metre infront of the car.
After a very scary 20 mins going 2mph we eventually made it back below the cloud, but for a sec it was quite hairy.
All in all a top day and to finish it off a NZ first for us - we saw a 'live' possum! Seen a shed load of dead ones on the road so nice to see one of these little fellas still alive!
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