At present, the latest sand spit is developing on the shoal northwest of Diaolongzui.

Peter Wiles, who was one of the first volunteers to reach Farewell Spit, told Fairfax New Zealand that the white bellies of the whale corpses were lined up on the sand and floating in the shallows.

For coming through the Narrows we had to lie very near the southern point and there we saw all three of them kneeling together on a spit of sand with their arms raised in supplication.