This is something every Kiwi should do.. fantastic trip done in late 2015 early one morning. Enjoy.
After a night of rockin and rollin with the wind( I thought that only happened on boats!), we were up a 6am to drive to the Spit to meet the tour bus. Nobody had really had any sleep since 3am when the big puffs came through but we were all looking forward to a great trip so it didn’t matter. The wind was blowing 30-40 knots creating a mini constant sand storm.
The bus picked us up from the carpark at 7am from a paddock next to some forestry equipment. This is set around the tide so we could get back safely. There were about 8 of us on the bus and off we went.
We headed down the beach. The trip is about 30ks to the end of the spit.
We stopped briefly to check out a tree which had been blown around from the bay around the end of the spit and washed up on the northern ocean side and got buried in the sand.
After crossing a creek and about 45 minutes, we arrived at the lighthouse and to have a cup of tea and muffin in the lighthouse keepers old house. This has been done up and maintained by the Eco tour operators and DOC and was in its original form as it was when the lighthouse keepers left in the early 80’s. Some of the lighthouse keepers families have donated pictures as they were at the light. The history and artefacts on display are amazing. I didn’t realise that the lights ran on kerosene, like a gas light with a mantle right up until the early 50’s in some if these lighthouses.
Back to the bus and we were off to have a wander in a sand dunes. The wind was howling by this stage so the sand was flying.
After a trip to Fossil point to look at some fossils of shells. ( I found Gary 🙂 ). After that we were dropped off back at Rafe in the paddock.
A must do trip for every Kiwi, I thoroughly recommend it.
Bugger It, we are off - www.buggeritweareoff.com 
Stunning photos Mr M 🙂
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I assume you are using one of your bigger guns i.e. not the iPhone?
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Thanks, yep, we were lucky that was when the tide dictated the timings .. I’m using the D4. I was a wee bit concerned taking it out in a literal sandstorm but it was only for a few minutes and seemed clean when we got back.
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Brrr – that looks cold. It’s been quite some time since we did this iconic trip, and our transport (at the time) didn’t look as flash as your red bus.
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Hi Guys
It wasn’t that cold but very windy with the weather that we’ve had in the last view days.
The bus was a real bitza. Based on a 1956 Bedford ex army truck with a more recent Perkins engine and a customised body. It’s probably a rebuilt version of the one you went in:-)
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