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!

Swine flu lady

This lady came off EJ's plane from Auzzie, and then got on my plane to Nelson... It isn't easy to subtly take a photo me someone on a plane, but i tried, and like the extra freakyness the photo invokes...

Needless to say I think she must be a bit of a hypochondriac!

Auckland trip

I'm back home now, but here are a few snippets from my trip to see Ben.
Here's the view from Ben's apartment before our night out on Saturday

It's a very cool apartment right next to the Sky Tower with views out to the Harbour Bridge too

Here's a vid I made with the view and a classic Fleetwood Mac song. Ben spent lots of the weekend thinking (and talking about) how the track would make an awesome parade song with performers dressed up as cave men... He's special!

Ben's boyfriend, Mana, sings at Sky City every week, and we went along to watch. He's really good!

Ben and Mana, awww

After Mana finished work we went and had a nosey in the casino. As a casino virgin I was amazed at how big it was, and after seeing it I think Las Vagas would be quite a cool place to visit!

I wanted to have a go, and gave myself $20 to spend. Ben suggested we play a version of roulette, which was faster than the norm as everyone uses touch screens to place their bets and the game is all automated... I was placing $2.50 bets (cause I like to live on the edge!) and wasn't doing very well, hemorrhaging my stash to a measly $2.50. But with only one bet left, I ended up getting a few lucky breaks and ended up with $37.50, WOOT! I'm such a high roller, I know...

Then I took it and ran, I think nearly doubling my money was a good place to end it! I'm glad that Ben and Mana were there though, you can see how addictive it could become - especially if you didn't have friends there to keep an eye on you!

Unfortunately no pics inside the casino or of the chips I earned - no camera's allowed :(

Thank you so much to Ben and Mana, it was a nice wee weekend break :)

On the way home I had a nice chat (on the plane) with an 84 year old called Molly. (The name of my late Nana which was nice!) She was in Auckland for the weekend for her great grandson's birthday which was quite epic at her age I think. As well as the classic old persons tales of how her husband and various other family members had died, she also tried to slip in a bit of Jesus talk, the crafty old minx! I had told her I was doing my MSc, and at one point she said "The sky is so beautiful, scientists couldn't possibly have made it" and then of course made some reference to how God did it with a finger... I did point out that actually scientists don't claim to have made the sky, they just like to study it. I then decided not to push the issue - I did have to sit next to her for another 20 mins after all, and I believe in respecting your elders, not slapping them :P