Day two started in Takaka, trying to take sunrise at the nearby Port Tarakohe / Limestone Bay. This was only 5 minutes from our accommodation, just as well as I was not handling two super early mornings in a row...
Nothing was really working for me that morning, it wasn't the most photogenic area and the sky was giving us nothing!
After breakfast & coffee (of course), we headed over to Farewell Spit for the short farmyard walk to Wharariki Beach. The walk was nice, steep in places but not bad. Once we hit the beach we could see how windy it was by the amount of sand being blown around.
I tried (and failed) to capture the shifting sands over the beachscape. Might have to google that one before my next attempt.
We weren't there in the best light but can definitely see it having potential on a good day. Nevertheless, we chucked on the filters and done some day-time long exposures anyway.
Next, we walked part way up Farewell Spit. Interesting fact on the info board there said that once upon a time the spit was connected to the Wanganui area and with the right conditions (ice age) the spit may connect again.
We were on the lookout for birds, being a bird sanctuary, but perhaps we didn't go far enough or at the right time of day as we didn't have much luck. Did see a ton of fish just swimming in the shallows as well as a stingray.
There were plenty of oystercatchers and turns, which gave us practice for our bird shooting if nothing else. As we walked back we waited as oncoming passers-by would get close enough to the birds that they would take flight and we started snapping. Unfortunately we are still working out or best settings and between that and the angle the birds took off in we didn't get many good action shots.
On our way back to Takaka we stopped to have lunch which just happened to be by another bird sanctuary where I saw dotterels for the first time on the trip. They've been mentioned a few times at the camera club as being quite endangered and so it was pretty cool to see some. I couldn't get that close to them, didn't want to spook them as I thought I saw some chicks as well, and while it's not an image I would usually share, it's part of the story.
We checked out Onekawa Wharf briefly, more for scope than for pics as it was the middle of the day. Problem is you only have so many sunrises and sunsets on a trip and you can't get to all of these in perfect lighting, maybe next time.
Next, we went and checked out Te Waikoropupu Springs which was pretty cool, full of history and culture. The walk was really nice, shaded from the sun, and the springs were very cool. So clear and blue. There were quite a lot of tourists there but everyone seemed to be respecting the boundaries in place which is good to see.
Dinner, if I remember rightly, was from The Currey Leaf in Takaka. We had fish n chips with chicken schnitzel (which unfortunately was processed) but the fish n chips were good.
For sunset, we were torn between heading back to Wharariki Beach to try and capture it in better lighting or just sticking around base. In the end, we decided not to go back to the spit, and just as well too as there was a storm that rolled in just in time for sunset, coming from that direction, so we probably would have ended up drenched.
I'm sure if I were writing this closer to the day I would have much more detail of our adventures - next trip this will be my missions (as well as the photos, of course).
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