Judging only from the pictures, one could think the beaches along New Zealand’s South Island northern coast are located in the Carribean. Fair weather, white sands and no soul around. The coast is dominated by the Farewell Spit, a protected, nearly 30km long spit of sand that creates the northern boundary of Golden Bay. One of the most famous beaches in the area is Wharariki Beach, dominated by its arches and featured by Microsoft Windows.
But not only the rock formations of the coastline are fascinating. We’ve never encountered such a richness of sea shells and different landscapes from white sands to barren beaches with only black and white rocks.
Wildlife can also be found. While we did not spot an Orca again like on the East Coast, we saw countless of seals near Kaikoura. And not only the fauna is exciting, also the flowers were in full bloom. Despite the rather gloomy weather.
The last destination on our trip was what really prompted me to use the title „Carribean“ for this post. Spending time in the Marlborough Sounds, hiking through rainforest and watching stingrays from the kajak made a wonderful ending of our five week Kiwi experience.
