An American Abroad: Farewell Spit

We had an action packed two days this past weekend. Finally it stopped raining on Friday, so we decided to take advantage of it! Due to all the rain sporty Saturday was not as sporty. The fields that soccer/football usually gets played on were too wet so there were no games on. So instead we headed into Nelson for the much talked about Saturday Market. It was a beautiful sunny day and the Nelson market has the best cup of coffee I've had in New Zealand. It's made by a dutch mother daughter duo. That's right Kiwis, contrary to what you believe, you do not have the best coffee in the world. It is a filter coffee which is a rare find here. Strong and black. Delicious!

After the coffee we wandered around and had all the free samples of jams, cheese, bread and hummus we could handle. We bought some beetroot and mint hummus that is a magenta pink and tastes amazing! After the market we tried to go to pick up our rugby world cup tickets. Ironically on the way we saw Todd Blackadder (coach of the Crusaders) walking down the street! Before the earthquake we were going to have our tickets delivered to our house in Christchurch, but since we left I asked to have them switched to pickup instead of delivery. We went to the store to pick them up and it turns out they were never changed and they even tried to deliver them to our house! So now we have actually changed them to pick-up. We still couldn't pick them up on the spot. We'll just have to go back for a Saturday market next week!

On Sunday we went to Farewell Spit to go for a walk. Farewell spit sticks out into Golden Bay at the northern tip of the South Island. I read before we went that you are only allowed to go a certain distance on the spit because the rest is a protected bird sanctuary. The only way to go to the very end of the spit is with one of the two eco tours that leave at 6:30 in the morning and cost about $125. Obviously for both of those reasons we did not choose this option.

On the way to the spit we stopped off at Te Waikoropupu Springs, known simply as Pupu Springs. Luke and I both agreed we were glad we didn't come all the way there just to see the Springs. They were interesting, but we spent a total of 15 minutes there and then headed on our way to the spit.

The beach at Farewell Spit is very, very long. When you start you think you can see the end, but when you get to where you think the end is there is a whole other stretch just as long as the last in front of you. We carried on walking for about two hours on the spit until we realize d the end was way too far away, so we turned around and walked back. We saw a seal carcass on the beach with only the bones and organs still in it. We saw loads of oyster catchers and other types of birds. Then on our way back about halfway between where we started and where we turned we saw a sign that was tucked behind some bushes that said track ends here do not continue. Now why would they put the sign there? I promise we would have gladly followed the rules if we had seen that they existed. Our punishment is that we were so sore this morning when we woke up from a 4 hour walk on the beach!