Laborday Trip - 24 October 2011

Labor day is celebrated on the 24th of October in New Zealand.  On this day, the Archives are closed so we went on our first trip outside of Wellington since arriving.  The Overton's (from St. George working with us in the Archives) joined us and we planned a 3-hour trip to the southeastern most point of New Zealands North Island Cape Palliser.  The map below shows our path (in blue) from Wellington northeast on highway 2 to Lower Hutt and on up to Upper Hutt.  Then west through the mountains to Featherston and southeast to Martinborough.  Note, this is not a freeway!  After Lower Hutt it's a two lane road from Upper Hutt to the Palliser Bay, and it's a pretty narrow road.  Then it gets very narrow and in some places it was gravel.  From Martinborough south to the cape, all of the bridges are single lane and you have to "Give Way" to the oncoming traffic...thank heavens, there was very little.  We were sure that the roads would be packed for the holiday, but thankfully, we were wrong.  The photos below the map detail our trek and a few stops we made after visiting the lighthouse overlooking the seacoast.

Actually we had three objectives.  Each will be described below but they include:

Cape Palliser Lighthouse
Fur Seals at the base of the Lighthouse
Putangirua Pinnacles - A Lord of the Rings film site

Off we go on our trek....

We left the towns of Lower and Upper Hutt after about 45 minutes on the road.  This picture looks back down the valley towards Upper Hutt.

This is looking back down the Rimutaka Forest pass from Upper Hutt to Featherston.  The road was really narrow and there were motorcycles all over the place and they'd pass on tight corners making it pretty nerve racking.  This is Te Marua scenic overlook.

This is looking south towards the Aorangi Forest and mountains we'll be going through to get to the coast.  It's a beautiful expanse of countryside formed by the Ruamahanga River and framed by the Rimutaka Range on the west and the Aorangi Range on the east.  There's a large shallow lake in the center of the ranges called Lake Wairarapa.

As we got closer to the coast we encountered hills similar to this leading into the Aorangi Forest.  Erosion from centuries of rainfall making the hillside very rugged.

Church building similar to this one on the left are few and far between, but when encountered they are a nice addition to the scenic panorama.  It is rather small in size, about the size of a small home.

The hillsides were dotted with hundreds, even thousands of white sheep.  Their wool is world famous and the grocery stores are stuffed with various cuts of lamb.

Here's a closer view of the sheep.  These have not been sheared as of yet.  Coming out of winter into the spring will bring about a need to shear otherwise they will burn up in the heat.

As we get closer to the coastline, we go through gorges like this on the right .  We must have crossed a dozen such cuts and riverbeds as streams came out of the mountains towards the sea.

Then, there it was, Palliser Bay and the Cook Straits.  Off in the distance, is the Rimutaka Range and just beyond that is Wellington Harbour.  What a beautiful sight this was.  The photo doesn't do it justice!  Breath taking for sure, especially from a little elevation.

Somewhere down around one of the juts in the coastline will be Cape Palliser and the Pacific Ocean some 25 kilometers yet to travel.  Of note, the furthest point is Humenga Point.  From that location just a little off in the mountains is the earliest known Maori dwelling which dates back to 1200 AD.

The white in the middle of this picture is the Kaikoura Range clear across the Cook Straits on the South Island.  The highest peak is Tapuae-o-Uenuku standing 2,885 meters high or about 9,500 feet.  We could hardly see it but sense it's beauty!

Ravines similar to this came frequently as we drove on down the coast.  You could tell that during the heavy rain seasons, the creeks they are home to become much stronger and certain in their desire to reach the sea.

Then around a bend and off in the distance we caught our first glimpse of the Cape Palliser lighthouse.  Makes for quite the scene doesn't it?

Then we got a little closer and it's beauty really started to appear!

Then there we were, below the lighthouse with a climb ahead.  This is from the west side or Cook Strait side of the point it sets upon.

Below is a panoramic feature of my camera.  It makes it appear as though we were standing way off from the mountain on what would be the east or the Pacific side of the southern most tip of the north island of New Zealand.  Actually I was a mere 200 meters from the base of the steps you see leading up to the lighthouse with the Pacific directly behind me.

What to say here?  Quite the beauty standing there.  I could tell you about the lighthouse, but the sign found below was posted on the side of the power building at the base of the hill.

Ok, so it's time to begin the climb up the 250 steps to the top.  Sure hope the knee holds out.  Wait just a moment....there someone standing about 1/3 of the way up the flight of stairs.  Who could that be? 

Well, it's that cutie Sister Ann McVey, always one...in this case about 100...steps ahead of her husband!

Now, once I get on the steps you'd think that she'd wait a moment for me to catch up, but nope...on to the top she treks.  Almost there isn't she!

Ah, there we are together at last at the bottom of the lighthouse.  The Pacific on the left side and Cook Strait on the right side.  This is pretty neat isn't it! 

We serve in the Archives with the Overton's pictured here with us with Cook Strait in the background and the road we took leading away.

This view is from the base of the lighthouse looking east to the Pacific Ocean.  You couldn't get into the lighthouse.  It's been closed to the public for some time.  The road seen below ends in about 200 meters and doesn't pick back up for about 10 kilometers up the coast at Ngapotiki Hut.  The Maori name for this is Te Rakauwhakamataku.  Please repeat after me...Te Rakauwhakamataku!

Here's the view out to the Cook Straits with a clear picture of the road leading out to the point. 

Well, what goes up must come down and this photo depicts pretty accurately the incline or slope of the steps.  Pretty steep isn't it!  Oh yes, if it's 250 up, it's 250 down!  One slip and you're bottoms is toast!

We look pretty confident don't we?

And yes, we were triumphant!

As you leave Cape Palliser the anchor of the Broek Ben Avon freighter is a reminder that even the lighthouse isn't enough to protect all the ships in the area.  This ship wrecked in 1903 and all that remains is its' rusty old anchor.

At the base of the hills, along the western path of the seashore was a large fur seal colony to be viewed.  There must have been a hundred or more on three or four of the outcroppings.  You can only say so much about seals so I'll not say anything other than putting a title on each of the pictures below.  Yes, they did smell and you had to be very careful about how close you got to the little ones.  Their mothers could become very protective and weighing well over a couple hundred pounds, they'd knock you over in an instant!

Sunning itself...or was it watching out?

This guy was a little nervous with us there.

Ok, I just got out of the water, that's why I'm wet.

This is my turf, don't tred!

I'm too tired to move, just let me sleep!

Did you say something to me?

My nose itches, can you help?

That was a great bath!

Yum Yum says the little one.

How many can you count?  We saw 8!

Let me see, we left at 9am, it's now almost 2pm and there's been no potty stops.

Here's a welcome sight in Ngawi!...thank you!  In fact, four thank yous!

Near the fur seal colony is the fishing village of Ngawi.  It adds a great deal of charm to the coastline especially with it's fleet of colorful tractors used to back the fishing fleet out to sea and retrieve the ships once they're filled with a catch of blue cod, moki, butter fish, blue nose and groper.

There must have been 20 or so tractors each hitched to a trailer and ship.  They'd back out to the sea to send their ships fishing.

Here's "Tinky Winky", eyes and all.

No name on this one, but from the picture, you could guess "Cheshire Cat".  She's hitched to the largest of the fleet.  

And yes, there was a "Babe" also.

Some of the trailers the tractors were hitched to were monsters.  The wheels seen here are 5' in height so you can figure this baby is some 20' tall and 50' long.

The fleet came in all sorts, colors, shapes and purpose.

This is pretty average for the fleet.

We stopped here for a quick bite to eat and then off up the river bed to see the Putangirua Pinnacles.  It's about 5 km round trip or 3+ miles and the trail was not defined at all.  Why visit the Pinnacles?  In "Lord of the Rings-Return of the King" when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli go retrieve the Army of the Dead, the ride along Dimholt Road was filmed against the surreal backdrop of the pinnacles.  Join us for the walk.

Here we are on our way up the riverbed.  Somewhere behind us after about 1 hour of walking we should encounter the Pinnacles.

As we got further and further up the gorge, we could see some of the small pinnacles like these at the right.

A little further along and the pinnacles started showing upon both sides of the riverbed.

Before long, we were surrounded on the left and right by haunting peaks of sandstone rock!  Some rising 100' above the riverbed.

You can see here that it's pretty dramatic.  Wind and water formed these pinnacles centurys ago.

You can see the larger stones protruding from the sides of the Pinnacles.  Not too far ahead was the dead end of the river.

 The two pictures below were again taken with the panoramic feature of the camera.  They really show you the surreal sense of the rocks and features.

The sign at the start of our trek indicated that the round trip would take about 1.5 to 2 hours.  We're a little older and ended the first half of the trip in about 1hr and 15 minutes.  The return was only 45 minutes so we hit the 2 hours on the nose after fording the small stream in the riverbed about 10 times.

Wow, this bolder (it's about 3' long and 2' wide) shows how the water used to cover this area.  These are shells embedded in the sand of what is now a few hundred pound bolder.  This was pretty neat!

As we came back down the riverbed to where we had departed, we had this view of the Cook Strait.  The hike was well worth the time and energy. And yes, the knees did pretty well.

We started our return to Wellington at about 4pm or so and got back about 7pm for a full day.  Well worth the trip and if this is the way it's going to be for future trips, bring them on.  We want to learn and see as much as we possibly can.  On our return trip, the sheep were again everywhere and yes, the concluding picture is appropriate with sheep grazing on the rugby field after the season has concluded!