Farewell Spit (Earthcache) Port Puponga, South Island, New Zealand
By beltfamily on 05-Nov-09. Waypoint GC20FPC

Out exploring today up near Farewell Spit. Had to dodge a few sheep on the way up to the skeleton, but soon had the photo, interesting place to visit, cheers

Thanks beltfamily for the Earthcache! It was a little surprise to find this skeleton here. Another example of good side of geocaching Great location!

Hello from Seattle, geocaching ground zero! It was a very windy day and our scheduled tour of the spit was cancelled due to soft sand but we checked out the arches further south and the fossil beach. Thanks!

1Walking a bit back from the car park one reaches a gate which leads up to the skeleton Thats what hubby did, whilst me tried to follow the sign to the fossils park interesting but totally wrong 2Signs and info center are goneAll necessary information found via google (hope they are correct3Tide is out and many sandbanks to be seen which might be the problem of stranding whales (no one to be seen out there today)Read an article about the echo signs bouncing back to weak to the whales because of the really shallow water what a pity4 Absolutely worth coming here 5 picture attached and answers had been sent to the COTftEarthCache

Thanks for placing the earth cache.
After some research have sent over the answers. We came whilst visiting from the UK as my uncle lives in Golden Bay. I'd visited a long time ago and remember going on one of the tours of the spit and being fascinated by the dunes.
Suspect the depth of the water causes an issue for the whales or maybe refraction of the sound confusing them. Remember seeing some of the beachings reported on UK news when there were lots of them which is sad.
We did the triangle walk today which was cool and I got to see more of the spit than I expected. Tftc

It took us three goes to get this cache which sounds silly but we’d never been to the area and the original carpark and Info Centre have long been out of use. First time we went directly to the lower carpark but decided we were in the wrong place and carried on to Fossil Point. The second time we found the old driveway entrance but completely missed the turn off to the whale skeleton - distracted by trying to get to the info boards for the nearby multi (they too have gone). Finally, while up at the top lamenting the loss of the info boards, some muggles appeared who pointed us in the direction of the whale skeleton. No sign at all of where the cafe/info centre used to be sadly, but thankfully made it to the skeleton!
Home to Google answers … sad that there’s no info at GZ to answer the questions!
TFTC Belt Family.

Bit of a big day today, I have to do a drivetest on the Kaiteretere South vodafone site, then a highway drive between Motueka and the Spit. But I intend to grab a couple of minute caches for the South Island 300 minutes challenge.

The end of my testing, now I get to drive back to CHCH. I was planning on doing this EC last time I was in the area (a year ago) but never did for some reason... Anyway, nice to sign it off today, I was originally here 20/Oct/2021 looking at my placeholder log... and then forgot to get the details together apparently! slack.... I'll delete that log now.


TFTEC beltfamily, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 8 find(s) of 12 today, making this find #3873

We‘ve been around here for a really nice walk. Thanks for showing the fossil to us - we wouldn‘t have seen it at all! Hope our answers are okay.

The way to the Skeletton is not marked and in no good shape but very nice when you go to the top for the multi.
Find a lot about the spit but nothing I could use.
Thanks.

I visited this impressive EarthCache while on vacation in New Zealand Thank you for the experience Greetings from Germany

in: favourite point

Thank you for this EC and for posting the co-ords for the WP, beltfamily - I have visited here before (when the Visitir Centre was present but inactive) & been defeated in my search.
A lovely calm day today, I was at GZ around mid-tide. Answers have been sent.

Saw this ec while visiting the spit almost at high tide. There was no longer any sign at the sceleton and route there was muddy and tricky. Snuway, compelitng this mission with best effort. The lovely place covers it all. did not see any stranded whales. Greetings from Finland.

My parents wanted to visit Farewell spit, so I tagged along. What an amazing place!

After Trekking along the beach to the cache out there, I had a new appreciation for the difficulty of slogging up the sand dunes, and I could understand why so many birds make this area their home for part or all of the year. The skeleton took a bit of locating (well it was the end of a hot day and I was tired... but I found it (see photo).

So why the whale strandings? (info from a BBC Article) Fortunately, there were no stranded whales while I was there - although I did encounter a Project Jonah Training session on Waikanae Beach a few years ago.

The shallow water around Farewell Spit is what causes the whales to beach.
There's a series of really large sand banks all through there in the bay, and it just gradually becomes more and more shallow, Because the water becomes shallower gradually, the whales may not be able to detect the change using echo-location, in the same way they would a sudden rise in gradient. "They can echo-locate, but it's [a problem with] the signal that they get bounced back. It's a combination of this gentle gradient and the soft sand. They probably aren't detecting that they are swimming into more and more shallow water."
By the time they do realise, it's often too late. The tide has already begun to run out.

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to set up this Earthcache all toose years ago.

Additional co-ords added

Out an about exploring the golden bay area with the Muggle parents and four wagging tails. This area has always been on out bucket list as a place to visit, we look forward to arranging a tour to explore the spit next visit. The tide was out when we arrived and we enjoyed exploring the sand flats before trying to find our way to the whale fossil for the required photo. Back at home we did some research and found a thesis that we think gives us the required information. Pity there has been a lot of changes and information disappear since this earthcache was created, making finding the information a bit more harder to find. From the carpark we walked back along the road and found a small gate and track up the hill... stunning views gives another view of the spit and there was the skeleton. Glad we had read some of the previous logs as we would have been at a complete lost as to how to find this... Thanks belt family for an interesting EC, message sent with information

I was really confused on this one. There was no cell coverage, so I couldn't see the logs from PFs at the spit. I followed the direction and walked north looking for the skeleton, but stopped at 2km and returned, so my pictures may not be exactly what was requested. TFTeC.

Sent answers to CO. Took a bit of googling and not sure all correct but best I could do without doing a masters thesis on it.

Another cache that is well out if date.

I found the whale, thanks to previous logs. Info not on any signs. Will attach answers when I get time on the internet. Somewhat spoils the point of geocaching.

Needs update. Signs do not exist any more and need to follow previous logs to find whale bones.

Just logging this as a placeholder, and will modify my log once I've got my data together!

TFTC beltfamily, the cache was found in good order Signed, sealed and returned to GZ. 1 find(s) of 1 today, making this find #2947

This was close to our last cache of the day
We came around here for the view. I looked for whale bones but couldn't see any on the beach. The sign boards are basically non existent.
For those coming behind me the whale bones are up at S40 31.270 E 172 44.502

Wished I had know as would of loved to see the bones.
Thanks for an interesting earth cache

As others have said the signs are long gone, and the coordinates in a previous log will be required in order to get to the whale skeleton. Answered questions as best I could and sent to the cache owner. TFTC.

Unable to locate the cafe or the information signs, but here is a (poor) photo of me at GZ, pointing at the Spit. Answered the questions as best I could. Headed off to do the Fossil Point, and Spit Track loop.

I guess that whale strandings are likely because there is so much shallow water, that when the tide starts going out, the whales don't know which way to go to get to deeper water.

Found The tour bus just arrived so lots of muggles TFTC

Awnsers coming soon

Wow what a great spot Farewell Spit is. Thank you also foe making me learn about the sands more

There was a fire at the cafe and so we didn’t go there but I attempted to answer all the questions anyway; have sent answers. Also the tour I was on didn’t go to the same whale bones but here I am with the ones at the end of the spit!

Thanks again.

TFTC!
#954

Hi, have just sent through the answers for the earthcache. Thanks to the previous log for the co-ordinates to find the whale skeleton. The path is starting to get overgrown and the skeleton unfortunately has a few bits starting to fall off. As my phone was my camera and gps, I have attached my attempt at a selfie with the whale bones. thanks for the earthcache

#8534. I am staying in Takaka this week on a work trip. Today we headed out to Farewell Spit to put out some sound recorders to see if any bitterns are using the wetlands. After returning to the vehicle I noticed there was an earthcache at the base of the spit. I walked out to the virtual coordinates but couldn't see any whale skeleton. Luckily my work colleague knew where it was and gave me directions to access it. Its at S40 31.270 E172 44.502 and accessible by a gate near the carpark or drive back south and come down the spur from the road. Nice views from the whale skeleton but no signboards with the required information. Have looked up the information requested on the internet and sent it to the CO by email. Thanks beltfamily for placing this earthcache out here. Its certainly a fascinating place and worthy of an earthcache.

Finally logging after getting the information required last weekend. I think there is some information missing which makes this earthcache a little harder. The cafe that used to be on the hill burned down a couple of years back, and some of the information boards also appear to be missing. The skeleton is still there though. It’s a great spot though, and I learned a fair bit about the spit here. TFTEC Belt family.

We had visited the cafe many years ago pre-caching days but today no cafe and information boards were not to be found. Information sorted through the interweb and answers sent off to CO, photos uploaded. A lovely day in the area, windy as you expect but boy that makes home pretty calm so keep it up Spit we appreciate your continued effort.

Tregearp and I had been to the café some 20 years ago, so when approaching the GZ today we noted that the environment had changed. Like others we found some useful noticeboards but none with the required information. The Internet did however provide all we needed, and as we made our way down the path we took the required photos. Answers to the questions have been emailed to the CO. Thanks beltfamily for setting up this Earth Cache.

Day 7 of my 2020 NZE (New Zealand Experience).
(My apologies for the delayed logging but I'm in catch-up mode)

Seeing as I can't be in America right now, I'm touring around the South Island instead. During my time here I am aiming to find as many of the TMGT caches as I can (preferably all 41) and also as many Virtuals, Earthcaches and Letterbox Hybrids as possible, plus any Trads or others that will fill a hole in my D/T grid, my Jasmer grid, or else the last 3 remaining Hidden Dates on that grid.

After my huge drive of yesterday, I had planned today to be a bit more leisurely. I was delighted to be at Farewell Spit as it's a place I have long wanted to visit, so I had spent the previous night here in my campervan parked (not on DOC reserve) on the side of the road as close to this cache as was allowed, so I could have another go at locating the info required as I had failed miserably to do so last night when I arrived.

I still struggled to try to match the cache page with what I was seeing at GZ. I had saved this cache as Offline Data using the official app, but that still didn't allow me to see the previous logs otherwise I would have understood why I was so confused. Regardless, I fulfilled the logging requirements as best as I could manage before starting my drive back to Nelson.

Thanks for setting up this Earthcache.

During our roadtrip through New Zealand I walked by this cache "Farewell Spit (Earthcache)" from beltfamily on 2 maart 2020 10:27. The reason for the walkby is a three split 1) bad connection, 2) disabled my mobile data anyway , and 3) did not load caches upfront. So unaware of this earthcache I walked by and even missed the skeleton of the whale . But why this note? In the Netherlands home of Abel Tasman and near my own hometown The Hague the first artificial spit was created in 2011 called the "Zandmotor" (see more details in earthcache GC2XZM5). I can imagine this place was of some inspiration.

Groetjes/Greetings and TFTC from a Dutchman (a long way from home, but home is here the heart is, on the bus).

.Its Farewell Spit on my radar for today. Arrived here just in time to get a car aprk before the rush came. Checked out the info boards here then proceeded down the beach to walk the circuit on a beautifull windless day. Loved all the info on the cache page. Enjoy eatrh caches and all they continue to teach me about NZ. Cheers. Fav from me.

Its a long weekend to Takaka, with Collingwood and Farewell Spit in the mix, with Zara Toby and BTs Bro. So lets go exploring. Visited lots of awesome places. But never enough time. I will be back.

After our walk over Farewell Spit of course I wanted to solve the earthcache about this place. Sadly we learned that the cafe had burned down a while ago, but the whale skeleton was still intact. While I couldn't find any information boards in the vicinity that were able to answer the questions here, the internet provided all necessary information later.
As for why this place sees many whale strandings I can imagine that the shallow water makes it difficult for whales to escape once they passed a certain minimum depth. Also, with the drift heaping up sand maybe paths that whales remember have changed and the resulting currents then force the whales into the shallows from where they cannot escape.
TFTC!

Nice to be here back again.
Sadly the café is gone - and with it the ice cream.
tftc!

Found with mr c on our travels from the UK thank you. Mr c has sent the answers

Found with MrsC on our NZ travels from UK. Great spot. Answers sent to CO

Round the world trip Made it to New Zealand and will be traveling all around the Islands. After Arriving in Picton I went to see the Spit. Was not easy finding the skeleton since there is no waypoint. The Cafe is gone - road closed.

Thanks for bringing up this cache!

Vielen Dank fürs legen und pflegen und beste Grüße aus Leipzig!
Thanks for hiding and many greetings from Leipzig/Germany!

Exciting visit to Farewell Spit with a blistering wind making our trek back from the farthest point on foot quite challenging! But it’s an amazing place to visit. We’ll be back to walk nearby circuits later this week. By the way the cafe mentioned in the description has been burnt down, so don’t expect coffee and cakes! TFTC and an FP here and answers sent to the CO

This earth cache is of course right by one of New Zealand’s most striking and interesting geological features, and it was very much on our bucket list or at least our timetable for this New Zealand trip. When we set off along the spit with a tail wind little did we know how much of an epic the day was going to turn out to be after the comfort of finding this earth cache. Answers sent to CO.

CO asks for theories of whale stranding, and as so few thoughts have been posted in other logs I've shared a bit of what I've found out.

There are a lot of theories as to why mass whale stranding happens, but the one thing they all stranding sites have have in common is shallow water.
It's always around January or February. It's something that the locals expect every year about this time.
There's a series of really large sand banks all through there in the bay, and it just gradually becomes more and more shallow.
Because the water becomes shallower gradually, the whales may not be able to detect the change using echo-location, in the same way they would a sudden rise in gradient.
They can echo-locate, but it's a problem with the signal that they get bounced back. It's a combination of this gentle gradient and the soft sand. They probably aren't detecting that they are swimming into more and more shallow water.
By the time they do realise, it's often too late. The tide has already begun to run out.
Farewell Spit is especially deadly as it sits, like a hook, right in the pilot whales' path. And they swim is massive pods, so if one gets stranded, the others share that fate.

The café referred to in the cache description (and shown on the geocaching map) has relatively recently completely burnt to the ground, and its car park has been closed by DOC. However you can still access the paths shown on the map very easily and reach the skeleton that is referred to. The skeleton is some distance away from the information board, so you would need to look at your map and follow the path up to where the café is indicated.

Really enjoyed coming up this way today. About to email answers and photo through to CO. TFTC

Hello from Perth WA

Found this whilst on our South Island adventure with Olive8.

What a great stretch for the legs after sitting in the car for the last couple of hours. Thanks for bringing us here, we "popped" out to GC2H3AK whilst here.

TFTC

Am letzten Tag auf der Südinsel haben wir noch einen Ausflug hierher unternommen. Wir haben sehr schöne erholsame Orte entdeckt.

Die Aufgaben dür den EC haben ermittelt (hoffentlich richtig).

TFTC

Grüße aus Germany
Orientexpress

Visiting this part of NZ today and having had lunch at the cafe we walked down to seek out the answers.
Those gathered we had a wander and then moved on
Thank you for bringing us here
Tim and Viv - ddm

Nach der Wanderung beim Farewell Spit kam auch noch ein Earthcache zu Bearbeitung. Foto schnell gemacht und gleich kommen die Antworten.
Die Wanderung hat mir sehr gefallen. Und das Split ist dabei sehr eindrücklich.

We had a wonderful 3 weeks holiday at the South Island and enjoyed our day here. We first went to Wharariki Beach - very windy but so beautiful! Afterwards we had a nice carrot cake at the cafe here before strolling down, passing the whale skeleton.
I have heard of the whales that are stranded here every year
Answers just sent to the owner. Thanks for this interesting earth cache!!

What an amazing location!
Will send answers and photos later when we'll be back in Holland.
TFTC

We were at the spot today and had a wonderful day. We enjoyed also the cafe. Thanks for showing this nice place!

Out to Farewell spit today. While the non-geocaching members of family were sitting enjoying their drinks at the cafe I wondered down the hill. Amazing views from the cafe and plenty of birdlife at the bottom. Thanks for the earthcache.

we had a great day at the spit with a walk, a swim and soup for lunch after that. TFTC

my best one - a wonderful holiday with kaari74 in NZ - we had a great time caching- thanks for all the gret caches you placed for us

Mirko83 and me walked along the beach for a few hours. While it was quite good on the southern part of it, it became a nightmare when we crossed to the norther part. It was very very windy and it was extremly difficult to move forward... We sunk into the sand and the sand was blown into everything ... eletronic stuff, clothing, mouth, ears, nose .... we were fighting our way back. Quite the adventure.

Thanks for the cache and sorry for the late log.

Mit CitizenJessica ging es den Strand entlang. Anfangs waren noch andere Leute um uns herum, aber nach 2h konnten wir niemanden mehr entdecken. Als wir die Halbinsel durchquerten und auf die andere Seite wechselten wurde es ziemlich ungemütlich. Ein sehr kräftiger Wind blies uns ins Gesicht und der weiche Sand machte ein Vorankommen fast unmöglich. Als wir nach langer Zeit endlich wieder links in den Wald abbiegen konnten, waren wir wirklich froh.

Danke für den Cache.

Out on a sunny day on holiday from Auckland. Thanks for an interesting cache beltfamily.

Nach dem Cape Farewell und dem Wharariki Beach haben wir noch einen kleinen Walk (leider mit Umkehr) am Farewell Spit unternommen. T4TC from Germany

Answers sent to CO. Loved being in the area after being sandblasted at Wharariki Beach. Spent some time in the cafe admiring the distant views & huge sand blow occuring out on the spit. TFTC

I though it will be a quick visit, but I spent most of the day on this magical place! Not just the spit, but the whole tip of the island is magical! Make time to be here and see the place...
TFTC!!!!

It took Nana quite a while to find the required information online. She read a wealth of information and feel as though we have a much better understanding of the geology of Farewell Spit.
The café was initially closed when we arrived so we parked at the bottom of the hill and made our way up the muddy path to the skeleton. Nana and Grandad remembered where it was from the last time they were here.
Thanks for placing this cache

It took Nana quite a while to find the required information online. She read a wealth of information and feel as though we have a much better understanding of the geology of Farewell Spit.
The café was initially closed when we arrived so we parked at the bottom of the hill and made our way up the muddy path to the skeleton. Nana and Grandad remembered where it was from the last time they were here.
Thanks for placing this cache

It took Nana quite a while to find the required information online. She read a wealth of information and feel as though we have a much better understanding of the geology of Farewell Spit.
The café was initially closed when we arrived so we parked at the bottom of the hill and made our way up the muddy path to the skeleton. Nana and Grandad remembered where it was from the last time they were here.
Thanks for placing this cache

It took quite a while to find the required information online. I read a wealth of information and feel as though I have a much better understanding of the geology of Farewell Spit.
The café was initially closed when we arrived so we parked at the bottom of the hill and made our way up the muddy path to the skeleton. We remembered where it was from the last time we were here.
We have been lucky enough to take a trip out to the lighthouse, which we found very interesting and worth doing.
The day we went out to the lighthouse it was incredibly windy and when we were there the other day it was again particularly windy, but that just added to the experience.
Thanks for placing this cache

Here I am! Waiting to the sun to come out! Tftc

In the afternoon we came along that spot as well to see the spit from the lookout. We noticed this earthcache and gave it a try. Got just the answer for one question from the boards. Researched the other ones in the internet. Nice and interesting cache.
Thanks for showing! Tftc

What a walk

Really enjoyed this cache even though it took me hours to find some of the answers and then they were conflicting....never mind I learnt a lot and enjoyed the area and walks...Thanks beltfamily for setting this cache.
Well done I think its the most difficult 1.5 D I have done ha ha

come fishy fishy fishy!

From our holiday in New Zealand after å friends wedding at Anatoki Salmon farms.
As the Cyclone Gita destrøyed our plans to do the Heaphey trail we needed to find another plave to explore. We choose to drive to the sand spit and haven't regret it. What a fantastic place`!

I will try to send the answers as soon as possible.

~Ayorama~
Proud member of 'teamGalskap'.
Dutchy, soppelsker og ælvecacher.

I don't know where I'm going.
But I'm going.
Shall i go to the left , where nothing's right?
Or to the right , where nothing's left?
Are you coming with me?

We are on a big trip to the South Island and had to explore this beautiful and significant area. Having an earth cache here has made me research the geology and understand the dynamics better. Unfortunately we did not go on an organised tour, maybe next time. Thanks for setting up this earth cache beltfamily.

What a great viewpoint and a fantastic view today. The notice board seemed to be missing so could only answer some questions which I hope are enough. Took a photo of the skeleton but will have to add that when I return home. Thanks for setting this cache.

Update-images added March 3rd.

Found it this cache with Cic
TFTC!

I found this cache together with my partner Pityulino during our holiday in New Zealand. Today we visited the Farewell Spit with a tour organised by Farewell Spit Eco Tours. Our tour was fantastic. We learned a lot about the history of the spit and that of its light house, about the sand dunes and also about the different type of birds that live on the spit. During our trip we met a lot of birds and also some seals. It was a fantastic day in a magical environment. We searched for and found answers to the cache owners' questions, which we sent them in parallel to writing our log. TFTC!

Up from CHCH visiting family in Richmond...and now a couple days in Golden Bay for some exploring. Settled in at the Golden Bay camp ground; sweet place.
The main aim of today was poking a stick at Farewell Spit and also visit Wharariki beach. Late morning by the time we hit the spit and it was close to 30 degree's.....to hot to walk far along the beach so we pottered around the shore and cliffs ....tide out so plenty to do. We then headed up to the cafe/info centre and found the whale skeleton. So cool but very hot....Way cool spot for an earthcache...cheers.

Down in Nelson for a 10 day holiday and one of our annual big treks in the wilderness somewhere in NZ. Day 4 of our trip and we were now doing a key feature of our planned holiday. An exploration of the Spit. Despite having visited the area a number of times before this was the first time we were checking out Farewell Spit.

On our trip from Collingwood to the Farewell Spit, we also looked for this earth cache. unfortunatly, this early in the morning The visiterscenter was closed. We did a Nice walk along the coastline.
#1806 Thanx!!

Spontaneously we came to Farewell Spit.
At that time it was low tide, so there was much of space for observing the mighty dune.
The access to the hill with the skeleton is still closed.
For that reason I took a picture right by GZpoint.
Answers were sent, thank you very much!
Many greetings from Germany.

T-Tech and I are travelling around South Island for 6 weeks

We stayed last night at the free camp below Waitapu bridge and today are heading north as far as we can. Along the way we will be grabbing a few caches.

After taking the walk on the Spit we made the effort to find the info for this cache. I took the walk up towards the cafe and soon found the skeleton, but there was no information board any more. The information boards at the start of the walk also didn't really help me, but some googling gave me a couple of ideas, and I have sent my answers to the CO. TFTC, beltfamily.

The Visitors Centre was closed; I couldn't actually find a path from there to the beach / info boards; the boards at the car park further on didn't have sufficient info & there was certainly no whale skeleton.

What a fabulous thing the south island of NZ is!!! Have to say the spit was a highlight for me. Enjoyed the tramp across the farm and the very windswept walk on the beach side. The mass strandings of whales adds a sadness to the place though. Answers and photo sent today. Logged after return from trip.

Byl jsem tu! Fantomas. TFTC and greetings from the Czech Republic.

I've been here a few years back, before learning about Geocaching. Now retracing my steps and logging any virtual/earth caches I can retroactively. Date of log matches the creation of my GC account.

### **--\\\\\\ AYAMALIN´´´´ S GEOCACHING KIWITRIP 2016-2017 ///--** ###

### *The Story of the New Zealand´ s Caches* ###

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Thanks a lot for the next New Zealand´´ s cache! I must say that this country is one of the best for the geocaching and geocachers in the world! Definitely YES! Beautiful hills, mountains, views, landscape, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, rocks, forests, ocean, villages, cities, farms, orchards etc. AyAmalin loves this country!
Greetings from the Czech Republic! I would like to invite all geocachers to Czechia, we have got many excellent caches on amazing places too!

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**#** ***2290***

**AyAmalin**

Tftc Sprunghörnchen

Took the tour of the spit, I am not exactly sure what I thought the spit would be like but it was completely different than i imagined. Beautiful place to visit although I am not sure I could live there. Well worth the visit.

We had a nice walk first on the one side of the landscape and after ca. 1,5 km (?) we crossed to the outer beach. What an amazing spot! Only beach and the ocean...Unfortunately we have seen only a short piece of it. But fortunately we haven`t seen any stranded whales...

On our tour throught the amazing New Zealand landscape we came by here. Thanks for sharing! Regards from Wolfenbüttel / Germanyd

Hello from Juneau, Alaska. I was last in Golden Bay 20 years ago. Visiting this weekend and witnessed the massive stranding of pilot whales. That happened on the 9th and today we saw a hundred volunteers working to help a dozen who where still alive. High tide was around 11:30 am and a human chain was made to encourage those now floating to move farther out into the bay.

I obtained the needed photo, but with all the people around, I neglected to find the info board. The Friends of Jonah group were coordinating volunteers and managing the several hundred onlookers. They closed the beach so we were not able to walk toward the carnage, 300 dead whales. Concern over the possibility that a whale may "explode" and strewn their stomach contents also kept the spit beach closed.

I will send info as I did some research and I trust that will be accepted. Thanks for the cache and the special experience. #3801

During our NZ holiday trip we visited the Spit as well and took a bus ride to the old lighthouse, saw seals and lots of seabirds, climbed dunes and learnt a whole bunch of new information about this area, some of this helped even answering the questions to the EC. A really interesting place again!
Thanks for the earthcache - geo-greets from Germany, [GlobeCacher.de](http://globecacher.de)
05:23pm - #4431

We really enjoyed this earth cache, also as it was our 400th cache. Thank you for this great earth cache.

On Wed 7th the brand new Oregon 700 hiccuped and lost all cache details from the Takaka PQ. Still showed icons with cache names- but no details. But this earthcache was one which was already printed out to take with us on holiday, so all good! A bit confused by the whale skeleton not being at the given coordinates- but but found it accidentally and took a photo of it with the TB, then realised it must be the one referred to in the writeup. There is no signage by the whale skeleton, but there is a sign at the public carpark down by the beach access, which mentions the dune type but no other relevant info.

We had lunch on the beach under the shade of a big pine tree 100 m south of the beach access. Magical!

Thanks for putting a cache here what a wonderful place tftc twitcher50 hav a fav

This weekend us capperz are over the hill to Golden Bay and celebrating. It's our wedding anniversary on Friday followed by my 50th birthday on the Saturday. So we looked around for a decent place to go for the weekend and the potential of this beautiful area won out (this time). Only grabbed the one cache on the Friday night (there was much drizzly rain and poor visibility) trip over the hill(s) so there was much anticipation for what was next. Both the Saturday of my half-century milestone and the Sunday were bathed in golden sunshine and the temperature was perfect; neither too hot nor too cold.
Great weather to be walking along this wonderful spit, and interesting things to see too. I ended up having my birthday lunch right by the skeleton on the benches.
T F T E C beltfamily, answers to follow shortly

At World’s End – New Zealand – One of our dream become true.

Our plan was to stay 4 weeks in New Zealand. But this wasn’t this easy to manage at work. So we moved spontanic the plan from march to november. We informed us before about point of interessts. The list was this long so we decided to go by campervan from the north to the south to have the most mobility. We arrived after way to much hours in Auckland and started there our round trip. At first we enjoyed the area in auckland and the north. In Waitomo we were able to see and enjoy glohworms in one of the famous caves. But this area had a lot of nice hiking trails were we could discovered the Piripiri Caves, Natural Bridge and the Marokopa Falls. This was already impressive to see and still the beginning of our adventure for life. The trip went on over Okere Falls Scenic Reserve direction Rotorua. In this area we enjoyed each hour, because each corner was different. We visited the Haumurana Springs – what amazing water -, Blue Lake and Green Lake and relaxed in Kerosene Creek. We liked all the water and in our travel guide we found a hike cloth to the Huka Falls, which ofcourse we did as well. All this flowers were bloom. One oft the Highlights was Wai-O-Tapu. The weather was perfect and all this colors awesome and the geysir a nice shower. By Campercan the to tour went on direction Tongariro Alpine with a short stop at Orakei Korako and the Tongariro River Loop Track. Lu like nice hiking tours and what could be the best for her birthday? Of course the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We started early in the morning and walked approximately 9 hours over gras, stones, snow and colorful water. Now we had to leave the Heart of North New Zealand and went over Taranaki Falls to the East Coast with the goal Napier. The weather was cloudy and often raining but a small sightseeing was a must have. The last stop on the North Irland was Wellington. But it was only raining and some streets were already flooded. That’s why we change spontanic our plan and only did the First Cache of New Zealand and went by ship over the Marlboro Sound to Picton. We went over Farewell Spit to the lonely Wharariki Beach with sea lions. On the way back to the big streets we stopped at Waikoropupu Spring and Janie Sesson Shipwreck and drove untypical to Karamea. In Germany we do not have this much and public caves and that’s way we enjoyed this area! Cloth to the West Coast we took a look at the Pancake Rocks. The weather was just raining and so we could not see the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, but we still visited them. We leaved the bad weather in the hills and enjoyed the Sun at Ship Creek, Thunder Creek, Fantail Falls and the Blue Pools. Wow they were relly blue and this clean and deep. I never saw something similar before. About Wanaka we read a lot in our travel guide and looked forward to it. There arrived we visited the Puzzling World and walked around the sea. Queenstown the next town we drove just through because at this time there was a marathon and it was really campervan unfriendly. So we used the time and drove to Milford Sound and enjoyed the hills surround us on the water. I never felt this small. After we are landed again on land the trip goes on to the Chasm and Clifden Caves and the Clifden Suspension Bridge. Wow what an adventure. At the end we visited a few cities like Bluff, Duneding, Moeraki Boulders and Christchurch were our Trip sadly ends.

At all this places we looked for nice and unique caches which shows us places which we never would had seen without. We enjoyed the nature and wildlife each day and it was really an adventure for life. At the end we drove approximately 5000 kilometeres and felt this relaxed.
Thanks to all owners for placing this caches and this much informations which we got about the particular areas. This was an adventure for life for us. Thanks for this beauty time.

Greetings from Germany – Luco235

The Farewell Spit is an amazing reserve where you can spend days of discovering. Unfortunatly we only had some hours but it was enough to walk up to the borderline of the spit and back to the cafe where we 'met' the whale .
Thanks for this earthcache!

Photo as explained in email to CO

Getting answers not obvious. But have been sent to CO. Walked to fossil point along beach and back along aptly named hilltops track with stunning views in all directions and lots of lambs. Didn't get to see any of the wandering dunes today but a few years ago took the excellent tour. NINO TFTEC

We really needed my wee cachelet to have a sleep this afternoon as he was really tired. We headed off on a wee ride after dropping of the rest of the family. We headed West and kept on driving until we ran out of road. I parked up after about a fifty minute drive and the wee cachelet woke up. That was good as we needed to check out this EC. We headed to GZ and what!? The tide was at is peak and we were 25m away from GZ. We waited for a wee bit and did some research and tried to find the sign. Hmm, we took photos and headed off. On the way out I realised the boards would be on the walk down from the cafe! We emailed CO with answers. Good fun and now we're heading back home.

Thanks for the cache beltfamily.
#4614

Every now and then I forget that I don't consider first to finds a big deal - - - and so it was that Isis58 and I drove today all the way to Farewell Spit collecting 6 FTFs on the way. - - - What an awesome day. That done we went a little further, to the base of Farewell Spit, had a coffee and a bit of a wander along the beach. We were about to leave when I remembered / discovered there was an earthcache right here. Gathered the information, took some photos and we were on our way. Thanks for placing the earthcache .

We had been on the ECO trip to the spit a few days earlier, but did not see this cache.
Anyway, as part of going with the Rural Postal Run we were taken there.
I guess the spit just gets in the way of the whales, sticking out so far into the sea. A sorry situation.
Thanks.

Thanks for placing the cache. Earth caches are always brilliantly informative. Answers will be sent today. Photo of bijouxtoojnr stashed in front of whale. Thanks for placing the cache.