The Long Road Back to Wellington

Over the course of the next few days we were to drive over 300km back to Wellington to catch our ferry to the South Island.  So we got on the road early that morning and slowly progressed along the winding road for three and a half hours towards our next camp near Dargaville.  We'd made a lengthy detour to Waihi Falls just before reaching the city where we were rewarded with a gorgeous wide fall, however our enjoyment of the falls was marred by the gusting winds tormenting the region.  It was far too cold to take the dip we had originally planned on.  Instead, we went back to the library in Dargaville to reconnect with the world via wonderful wifi.  The whole building was shaking and whistling with every gale, it was sort of creepy.  We stayed until closing hoping the wind would let up, but it wasn't in the cards.  We retired to our camp and battened the hatches until morning. 

The next day saw another three and a half hours drive to just north of the southern most point of the North Island.  The wind had stopped and the day was opening up into beautiful sunshine when we had arrived.  We checked out the campgrounds and decided to take advantage of the sun and go for a drive along the coastline to Cape Palliser (No, I guess we hadn't already had enough driving, hah.)  The drive is known to be one of the four best coastal roads on the North Isle, and I'm glad we decided to make time for it as the views were really stunning and very unique given how much of New Zealand we'd already seen.  Rugged craggy mountains rising steeply over the tumultuous sky blue sea and black sand beaches, permeated by rocky headlands and watched over by a picturesque lighthouse.  The lighthouse was the end of the road, and the southern most point of the island.  250 steps led to the foot of the lighthouse, and Kayleigh just shook her head as I paraded up the stairs, hungry for what was most certainly a beautiful view.  You tell me if you think it was worth it…

Can you spot Velma way down there?

Epic view

One the way back to the campground I pulled off onto a short side road leading out to a craggy headland playground jutting into the sea.  Again, Kayleigh stayed and shook her head as I ran and climbed to the top of the rocks like a 5 year old at jungle gym.  Once up there, Kayleigh got out of the car to take some photos and I heard some animal noises coming from behind the rocks on the far side of a gap across from me.  I had heard that seals often frequented the area along the coast, so I started scanning the rocks hoping to discern the form of a seal amongst the dark lava rocks.  I happened to look down the side of the rock I was sitting on and viola! 3 or 4 seals were sitting out on the rocks sunning themselves.  I called to Kayleigh and she was up the rock in no time staring down at them.  As we looked, we made out more and more of them - loads more than we had originally seen! The coolest thing of all was that most of them were seal pups!  By the end we had estimated there were roughly 50 seals amongst the rocks, with the majority of them being pups.  We watched and listened as they shimmied along the rocks and called out and the adults collected and herded them.  Amazing and adorable!

How many can you spot in this photo?

Hello there! 

Super close!

The last activity on the list for the North Island was the Putangirua Pinnacles.  The hike to the pinnacles actually started just beyond our campsite, and the pinnacles were used as a filming location for the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King where Eragorn (forgive any misspellings!) sought out and bargained with the ghost army.  There are two forks to the hike, one leading to a viewpoint looking down onto the pinnacles and another through the valley walking amongst them.  I was pretty stoked to see them, but the I went to the high viewpoint first and wasn't impressed - certainly not worth the huff and puff climb.  So I descended back down to the valley and pushed on.  When I reached the beginning of the pinnacles I still wasn't feeling it, but as I walked deeper into the valley the formations became taller and more impressive.  It was an eerie place.  Like a stone forest.  I wandered up between some of the pinnacles poking around and taking photos, half expecting an ambush around every corner - the badlands of New Zealand.  It was a great way to end the first half of our travels around New Zealand.  Onward to the South Island!

From the viewpoint lookout

Dwarfed 

Looking back down the valley from the top