Cape Palliser

Sundays have become quite ritualised recently. As well as every Sunday now being Waffle Sunday, they have also become a day for getting out of Welly and Nick and Fenn. Yesterday it was a trip to Cape Palliser, the southern most point of the North Island.

We could see it (pretty much) from our vantage point on Mt Climie last week, and decided it would be a good all-dayer, especially if the weather was good. Thankfully it held out!

First stop (after a few hours driving, with a detour through Martinborough to get fuel!) was Pinnacle Rocks, made famous in LOTR as it was the location of The Valley of the Dead...

Like usual, thank you to Nick who took pretty much all of these photos... very nice ones too I might add! We borrowed a wide angle lens for the occasion too



Lots of Shells in the rocks on the walk there - this place was under the sea not so long ago - they aren't even fosilised yet!



The next stop along the way is Ngawi. This wee fishing village doesn't have a slip-way of wharf so the boats are all kept on make-shift trailers and wheeled in and out of the water when needed by (very) old bulldozers...
Yes, I can drive it...
Making friends... or not!


The photographer hard at work











Cape Palliser is home to one of New Zealand's largest colonies of the NZ Fur Seal. They smell bad (although not as bad as Fenn's farts... I'm not sure what she's been eating but it was BAD!)


249 steps up to the Lighthouse (I know - I counted them twice!)

One of the best things about this place (I think) are the cool native plants around... Heaps of Raoulia!

I managed to get the camera sometimes

But normally have to just use my mobile phone :P









The sunset wasn't as epic as we had hopped it might be, the clouds came in a bit too early

We stayed to watch the lighthouse spark up. Impossible to get in a photo but we could see the beams of light shining out to the horizon, it was VERY cool to watch, almost mesmorising!



And if I stood in the right place on the hill the light would hit me too!



















I was also slightly obsessed with the lens inside the Lighthouse - the shadows of the ripples in the glass could be seen on the windows as it slowly rotated.
Another long Sunday - not so much a day of rest but always fun :)