Birds again

From Westport to Farewell Spit today. I thought it would be a boring drive and a spectacular end but no, the drive was really good. The Bullar Gorge was a series of ups and downs and bends and spectacular views followed by a few miles of fruit and hop orchards. The apples looked big and red as we drove passed them.
As we were quite close to the sea I thought the rest of the journey would be straight and flat. I did not know about Takaka Hill. This has 260 bends in 25 kilometres.Admittedly some were small but many were hairpins.So much for an easy days driving.
Farewell Spit sticks out between the Tasman Sea and the Cook Straight.The inner side is very shallow and quiet.We were lucky when we arrived the tide was high and it looked like a lagoon;latter when the tide was out there were very large mud flats. No wonder the bird life is important here, the end of the Spit is closed nature sanctuary.
The seaward side of the Spit is totally different,once over the sand dunes the beach stretched for miles and was totally empty.The sand had been blown into series of little mounds, like drumlins.It was a magnificent place but a bit eerie