Onetahua/Farewell Spit

New Zealand / Tasman / Takaka /
 spit/sandspit, interesting place

Abel Tasman, the first European to see the spit, called it Sand Duining Hoeck.
Captain James Cook in 1770 named the nearby cape, "Cape Farewell" and early European settlers originally called the sandbanks 'Cape Farewell Spit'.

The lighthouse at the end of the spit was first lit in 1870. It was automated in 1984.

With open sea on one side and sheltered waters on the other, the massive sandspit Farewell Spit has two entirely different faces. Situated at the extreme northern tip of the South Island, Farewell Spit stretches more than 30 kilometres into the Tasman Sea and is an area of outstanding natural beauty. The Maori name for the spit is Onetahua, meaning 'heaped up sand'.

Farewell Spit has been a bird sanctuary since the 1930s and provides a home for over 90 bird species. Bar tailed godwits, knots, curlews, whimbrels and turnstones fly around 12,000 kilometres every northern hemisphere autumn to spend the summer here in the south. The spit also has a gannet colony.

To guide passing ships, Farewell Spit's first lighthouse was built in 1869. In the early years the lighthouse site had no vegetation and windblown sand was an ongoing problem for the keepers. Then one clever keeper organised for small loads of soil to be delivered with the mail. He planted a windbreak of macrocarpa pines which are still there to this day. The pines protect the station from the shifting sands and provide a daylight landmark for passing ships.

The best way to experience the spit is on a 4WD safari. You'll find tour operators in nearby Collingwood.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°31'48"S   172°53'2"E

Comments

  • Nearby population centres are Takaka and Nelson. The "cities" quoted in your article are in the North Island
This article was last modified 3 years ago