Collingwood, New Zealand - Paddy Gillooly remembers every detail of his first visit to Farewell Spit. "It was stormy. The sand was blowing everywhere. Your skin felt like it was being pricked with needle points. I even had sand in my eyes. And I was scared of the tall lighthouse."
Back then Paddy was seven, wearing short pants and on a school trip. Forty years later, he has a different perspective on the northwestern tip of the southern island of New Zealand. Farewell Spit is now a source of personal happiness. He refuses to ponder leaving the sandy 35 kilometre strip, nestled between Cape Farewell and the Golden Bay.
Farewell Spit is still growing and changing, mostly due to those strong winds. Some days it's like looking through a "curtain of sand" says Paddy.
His company chauffeurs visitors in jeeps and buses from the town of Collingwood to Cape Farewell and beyond to the far reaches of Farewell Spit. Only two businesses are licensed for these kinds of safaris as the peninsula is a protected area.
Paddy is not a seasoned travel professional, but a mechanic.
"Only a mechanic could do this job," he said. That's because his buses, which are continuously deluged by sand, salt water and mud, need constant care.
Before he started leading the tours, Paddy was mainly a mechanic for the vehicles that brought supplies to the lighthouse keepers and their families. But in 1984, the lighthouses were automated, which seemed to spell the end for Farewell Spit Tours and business supplying the lighthouses with mail, newspapers and groceries.
Instead, Paddy took over the business and turned it into a tourist venture.
The nicest tour is along side streets and bumpy paths to Cape Farewell, the northernmost point of the southern island. The cliffs are spectacular. Visitors can see shattered boulders and the Tasmanian Sea lashing against it. Stony crags lie in the water, surrounded by spray with seals on top, sunning themselves.
From this point, the trip heads downward towards Farewell Spit. The all-terrain bus leaves the road, heads directly to the water and works its way east right along the water's edge. The strip of sand alternates between flat surfaces and dunes. In the midday sun, the dunes look as if they have been fashioned by a light effects artist, not the wind.
Since 1870, Farewell Spit's lighthouses have guided seamen through the Cook Strait, a windswept passage that separates New Zealand's northern and southern islands.
During high tide, it can be hard to make out this bit of land, which is why the lighthouse became so important for shipping.
The old dwellings of the lighthouse crews remain. One now contains a small museum, telling the Spit's history. Although the lighthouse has saved many a ship's captain from crashing, it can't do much to show whales the right way. Pilot and other varieties of whale regularly beach themselves in the treacherous waters on their way to Golden Bay to hunt for food.
It's not always possible to get the animals back in the water - 41 pilot whales had to be shot in 2005.
Information: Tourism New Zealand, 80 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TQ, Britain. Tel. 0044/207/930 16 62); Internet: www.newzealand.com, www.nelsonnz.com, www.farewellspit.com.
