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 :)

Sunday walk II

It was Sunday and it was Sunny. How could we not go for a walk??!
Destination: Mt Climie. Not the first time up, but the first time in Spring :)

We saw quite a few Red Admiral's which was very nice to see, I'd never noticed how they have red antennae before!

I think there were more species of moss and lichen on each tree than there were species of tree on the whole hill side...

Oh look! A plant!!
And yet more moss...
Mana Island looking very scenic from the top (and the Marlborough Sounds behind)

Fenn enjoyed the fact that we couldn't walk very easily in the alpine plants but she could run around underneath them!







I think Fenn has inherited my appreciation for a good view :)














The Holy Tree! (spelling intentional)


Yes - it's true - I did actually take some of these photos! (none of the really good ones though, thanks Nick!)
Fenn got sick of waiting around for Nick and I to take photos...



























I found a high, rotting, leaning pole, so naturally decided to climb it!




On the way down this bit of metal fell off... I told you it was falling apart!



Hi from Nick and Me!



WOW. I've called this place Astelia Fields. Can you guess why?!
(bloody awesome photo Nick!)
We got to 850m up. I do find it quite amusing that this is 2/3 of the height of Ben Nevis, the highest 'mountain' in the UK :P

Fenn enjoyed running about at Astelia Fields!
But then got tired...














Walking home it got pretty dark. More Astelia - this time in a Rimu tree


This is a GPS track from Nick's Iphone - it doesn't go quite to the top cause we forgot to start it, and the straight line is where we turned it on and off again on the way up - so it filled in the gap with a line...


View Larger Map


We'd worked up quiet an appetite so had a 3 course meal of Turkish goodness... YUM

Sunday walk

Yesterday Nick and I went for a walk down to the Pencarrow Lighthouse, which I hadn't been to since I was there with Si in Feb last year...

It's a pretty decent walk along the coast and you end up on the other side of the harbour entrance from Breaker Bay

View Larger Map

By the time we got there the Sun was pretty close to setting (at about 5) which made for some pretty awesome views, but my camera was struggling with the light contrast :P

Ooooooo Aaaaaahhhh

The lighthouse it's self

Nick playing photographer as usual!

There were heaps of lambs about and I had a chat with this one...

It was about 7 when we got back to the car, and it really was quite dark and chilly! This was 6.30ish, it was a great walk, followed by a movie - Up 3D - highly recommend!

boys visit

Well, it's been an interesting week: I found out the guy driving the car is going to get prosecuted (yay), I got my cast off (YAY!) and the boys came to stay for a few days too :)
Having them over was a bit tiring cause I've been on the go all day, which I haven't done much for the last few weeks. But they were very helpful and made it easy... I can see why child slave labour seemed so appealing... back then I mean... not now... well, perhaps...

So Michael and Gabriel arrived on Tuesday morning. We had lots to do, and of course lots of Wii in between doing the lots of things...

Trip to the Zoo went well, they look so grown up now!! :S

Fact for the day: Giraffe's require the least sleep of any mammal - only 1 to 2 hours per day! (Or is that per night... hmm, well you get the idea)

I love Meerkats, they are just the epitome of coolness

We also went to see the obligatory 3D movie, this time it was the new Ice Age one, pretty cool. EJ came along too cause she is always up for a kids movie, and ALWAYS up for a Wendy's shake, what a fatty! (only joking EJ I love you)

We also did some exercise - walking up Mt Climie just behind where I used to live past Upper Hutt. It's a good hour and a half up, and the same down, although I was taking it real easy for my knee's sake! I'm happy to report it went well though, and I'm in no pain at all, horay!

You can see it on this map - walked from The Plateau to 'A'

The dogs came along too, and were very useful at providing a little help up the hill

You walk up through Manuka scrub, regenerating bush and up into sub alpine forest - complete with cloud/mist!

Unfortunately my camera then ran out of batteries, so I had to start using my cellphone :P

The clouds cleared for us at the top - we'd walked up from the level of those fields down below

One last pic with the real camera after warming the batteries in my hand!

And the dogs in the boot on the way home, they loved it :)

K, now I'm tired!