Rare Farewell spit visitor a treat

PADDY GILLOOLY/Farewell Spit Eco Tour

STRANGE FIND: Shelley Climo from the Farewell Spit Eco Tours office with the sunfish, found near Puponga township.

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Tourists being guided along Farewell Spit were mesmerised by more than just the area's natural beauty yesterday.

A large sunfish, about 2 metres long, and 2m wide from fintip to fintip, was spotted as Farewell Spit Eco Tours driver John Stevens was heading towards the spit with a busload of tourists.

The dead sunfish was on the intertidal plain of the spit, about one kilometre on the Collingwood side of Puponga township.

Farewell Spit Eco Tours owner Paddy Gillooly said the sunfish fascinated the tourists.

"It was quite a good way to start the day. It's one of the biggest ones I've seen."

The day before, tourists had seen a small dead minke whale that had washed up on the spit, and had since been washed away again.

Mr Gillooly said he had seen about half a dozen sunfish washed up at the spit over the years. Because they could not manoeuvre easily, they could get washed into shallow water and stuck there.

They were also a "very hard fish", he said.

"Boaties and yachts sometimes run into them, and the yacht will come off second best."

He said the Department of Conservation had been told about the sunfish, and he believed it would be left alone to decompose.

- © Fairfax NZ News