Among the most prominent of Aotearoa’s already sprawling nest of eminent bird sanctuaries, Farewell Spit leans eastwards for around 30km from the northern tip of Mohua Golden Bay,
in Nelson Tasman. The arching, spindly sandy strip—the nation’s mightiest spit and one of the world’s lengthiest sandbars—cradles around 90 species of birds including a gannet colony 9,000 strong, joined each spring by thousands more migratory waders from the northern hemisphere.
Other feathered residents include the black swan and Caspian terns, while dolphins and whales regularly visit the local waters and slovenly seals laze around Wharariki Beach beyond the western base. Further wonders include salt marshes, mudflats, an historic lighthouse, and expansive dunes (the landmass was originally labelled ‘Ohetahua’ by Māori, which translates as ‘heaped up sand’), little wonder then, that it’s noted as a Unesco World Heritage Site “in waiting”.
Understanding Unesco
The United Nations Education and Cultural Organization, or Unesco, is known as the ‘intellectual’ agency of the wider United Nations, established the year after its parent organisation was founded following the end of the second world war in 1945.
Aotearoa played a prominent role in the gestation of Unesco with Dr Clarence Beeby, New Zealand’s then Director of Education, appointed the first Director of Unesco’s Education Sector in 1948.
Thirty nations attended the first Unesco General Conference towards the close of 1946, and since then membership has ballooned to 195. The General Conference is one of Unesco’s three constitutional organs along with the Executive Board and the Secretariat. Audrey Azoulay, of France, is currently serving as the organisation’s eleventh Director-General. The General Conference and Executive Board are Unesco governing bodies, while the Secretariat, overseen by the Director-General, implements their decisions.
Unesco was formed with purpose of fostering an international “culture of peace”, while eradicating poverty and creating sustainable development and intercultural dialogue “through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information”. The organisation primarily focuses on five main areas, or “themes”—education; natural sciences; social and human sciences; culture; and communication and information—with its World Heritage Sites arguably being the most well-known project.
Unesco’s World Heritage Sites are places that possess “natural or cultural properties of outstanding universal value” as decreed by the World Heritage Committee. The criteria required to gain World Heritage status is regularly revised in order to “reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept”, though what’s usually considered are such things as whether the site:
- Represents a masterpiece of human creative genius
- Bears exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or civilization is an outstanding example of architecture, technology or landscape that illustrates significant stages in human history
- Contains significant natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity
Example of the world’s most famous sites include the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Yellowstone National Park, and the Great Barrier Reef. Aotearoa New Zealand presently has three official Unesco World Heritage Sites: the Subantarctic Islands; Te Wāi Pounamu, which incorporates the national parks of Fiordland, Mount Aspiring, Aoraki Mount Cook and Westland Tai Poutini; and Tongariro, which has been bestowed Dual Heritage Status owing to its cultural and natural significance. Along with the likes of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Napier’s historic art deco precinct and the Kermadec Islands and Marine Reserve, Farewell Spit, in conjunction with Kahurangi National Park slightly to the south, shores up New Zealand’s Tentative List of Unesco World Heritage Sites.
Finding Farewell
Farewell Spit is protected land, so only the first four kilometres (and all Wharariki Beach to the west) may be explored independently. There are a handful of coastal walks that depart from around the spit’s base, but to really appreciate this Nelson Tasman gem, it’s best to book a tour. The Collingwood-based Farwell Spit Eco Tours offer short and full-day jaunts that ferry visitor along the sandbar in their famous red four-wheel-drive minibuses that make light work of tackling the sands as you take in the plethora of wildlife, exposed fossils, and, if you catch the tide at the right time, the occasional shipwreck. Built in 1897, Farewell Spit Lighthouse, the only one in Aotearoa with a lattice frame, protrudes from the spit’s tip. Another awesome option is to take in some highlights from atop of a steed with DoC-approved Cape Farewell Horse Treks, who operate tours to Wharariki Beach and beyond, memorable views of the spit and as far afield as Kahurangi National Park.
Why Do Whales Beach At Farewell Spit?
The sandy protective arc around the northern waters of Golden Bay also sadly serves as a cemetery for a significant number of whales and dolphins almost annually.
Dozens of long-fined pilot whales beached themselves earlier this year, with more than 20 dying, and in 2017 there was a mass stranding of up to 700 of the marine mammals, of which around 250 perished.
Strandings almost always occur in January or February, but scientists aren’t 100 percent certain as to why they happen. What certainly plays a significant role are the shallow waters, and the fact that they become so shallow so gradually. This likely affects the creatures’ echo-location ability to detect the slowly encroaching danger and by the time they do realise, it’s too late to return due to the retreating tide, all made worse by the soft sands which serve almost as traps. Heartbreakingly, their strong social bonds may also encourage them to follow their family and friends into peril—and even to return and re-strand having been re-floated by volunteers.
