Collingwood

Collingwood sits at the mouth of the Aorere River in the far west of Golden Bay, about 24 kilometres from Tākaka, and is the last settlement of any size before Farewell Spit. Around 300 people live here, and it is where the highway effectively runs out.

Plan your fuel around it. The general store on Tasman Street is well stocked and open 8am to 6pm every day, with an ATM and a postal agency, but fuel is not something to count on finding in the township — fill up in Tākaka. The supermarket there delivers this far north only three days a week, which is a fair measure of how thin the supply lines get.

What Collingwood is for is access. Farewell Spit begins just up the road, though independent access is limited: you can walk the base from Pūponga Farm Park, but the rest of the 35-kilometre sandspit is a nature reserve reachable only with the licensed tour operator based here, or on a DOC permit. Tours run year-round and departure times follow the tide, so expect an unusual start time and book ahead. Wharariki Beach is further out again, a 20-minute walk from the road end, and not a place to swim.

Inland, the Aorere Valley runs roughly 30 kilometres to Brown Hut and the eastern end of the Heaphy Track. There are fords on that road, so check conditions after rain.