I was happy when the weekend came to finally have a couple of days off to go out and do something, as I only really get the chance to go on proper days out somewhere when Joss is round his Dad's at the weekend. I therefore decided I would finally get over and visit the Wairarapa, focusing on the southern parts. I in particular wanted to visit Cape Palliser Lighthouse and the Putangirua Pinnacles so getting there effectively required hitchhiking. I therefore caught the train out to Featherston which only operates twice a day on a weekend, before catching the bus down to Martinborough. It was interesting going through the tunnel through the Rimutakas which reminded me of the alternative route from the doing Rimutaka Rail Trail a few weeks previous.
When arriving in Martinborough which was particularly busy due to the Toast Martinborough event scheduled for the Sunday, something I hoped to visit, I walked for a little bit down the road to try and get a good spot to hitch a ride down to Cape Palliser. I knew it would be particularly easy to get a ride as bar a couple of turn offs to some small settlements the road only went to Cape Palliser. In the end it was easy and I was picked up by a local which meant I practically got a free guided tour on the way down there, the scenery en route pretty special. In the end I got dropped off in the small village of Ngawi about 5km before Cape Palliser as I wanted to check out the bulldozers. Ngawi is known for having the highest ratio of bulldozers to people in the world and they aren't wrong!
After leaving Ngawi I walked the rest of the way to Cape Palliser, stopping en route at various points for photos of the dramatic coastline and black sand beaches. A particularly interesting feature included Kupes Sail which is a geological landform formed through plate tectonics and literally looks like the ground is sticking up in the air. There were also plenty of spots en route to spot seals which were particularly active and in high numbers. I eventually reached Cape Palliser Lighthouse which is the southern most point of the North Island. The lighthouse itself was red and white stripes and lonely planet rank in the top 10 lighthouses in the world to visit. Getting up to the lighthouse required climbing 258 steps, although I did climb some rocks to get a better view too!
When leaving the lighthouse I headed back the same way back towards Kupes Sail and Mangatoetoe which I passed on my way to the lighthouse. From here I started heading inland into the Aorangi Forest. I knew doing Ngawi, the Lighthouse, and the Pinnacles in a day would be ambitious in terms of getting back to Eastbourne as the train passes through Featherston late afternoon, so I instead planned to do a walk from Mangatoetoe to the Pinnacles which happened to pass 4 DoC huts en route, allowing me to stay out somewhere overnight.
The walk followed the Mangatoetoe stream through a valley to the first hut which was pretty. After arriving at the first hut I decided to continue to the second hut as I still had a good couple of hours of daylight to play with. I continued to follow the stream which narrowed before heading up into the forest with a few decent viewpoints, before dropping down into the Kawakawa valley where I followed that stream to the second hut. It felt very remote and when reaching the second hut I decided to base myself there for the night as I didn't want to be in what was basically absolute wilderness at night which would have been the case if I continued. It was nice to relax and have a fire going before it got dark so I think I made the right choice staying at the second hut.
On the Sunday I was up pretty early as the sunlight woke me up, although I didn't have a great nights sleep because I thought it was going to be a cold night but by the time I got in my sleeping bag and left the fire to die down it was really hot inside the hut. After breakfast I pressed on through the forest, initially following the stream before climbing up an incredibly steep path through the forest before dropping down an equally steep path to the third hut by another stream. The terrain was very challenging with loose sediment and many tree roots, and in a navigation sense I had to be on the ball the whole time as animal tracks and hunters trails made following the correct route a challenge. After the third hut the path once again climbed up in an incredibly steep manner before following a ridge line and dropping down into another valley to the fourth hut.
After the fourth hut came the most challenging climb which was practically a scramble to reach the ridge line although I was rewarded with the best views yet and could finally see the coastline again. I followed the ridge line for a while before decending this time at a more gradual gradient towards the pinnacles, which by the end of the path was a 4wd track so easy terrain. The Putangirua Pinnacles are an example badlands erosion. When the Aorangi Range was an island, 7 to 9 million years ago, screes poured gravels onto the coast. The Putangirua Stream which runs through the valley has exposed this ancient layer of gravels to the erosive forces of rain and floods. Where cemented silts or rocks within the gravel beds prove more resistant than the underlying sediments, spectacular individual pinnacles or “hoodoos” are formed. The eerie scenes in The Return of the King as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ride along the Dimholt Road to meet the Army of the Dead were also filmed here.
After checking out a couple of lookouts above the pinnacles, I decended into the valley to explore the fascinating landform from below. There were several little paths leading up into the rock structures and I spent a while exploring before following the stream through the valley back towards the coastline and the end of the hike. The coastline itself here was stunning with views across to the Rimutakas in the distance. From here I hitched a ride into Martinborough where I was literally picked up by the first car that passed me. It was fun though as the couple who picked me up had a truck so I sat outside on the trailer bit which was slightly illegal but a great way to see the scenery!
When in Martinborough I checked out the toast event. The Wairarapa is particularly famous for its vineyards and this event takes people out to some of the surrounding vineyards for wine tasting. I didn't do that although I did explore Martinborough itself which had lots going on in the way of food and music in the square for the festival. It is tempting to return to Martinborough at some point with a bike and visit some of the vineyards when it's a little less busy. From here I hitched a ride to Featherston which I had a little look round, before hitching a ride to Wellington, ironically with the same guy I met in the pinnacles. When making it to Wellington I had dinner by the harbour before heading back to York Bay later that evening.
It was nice Joss was round his Dad's Sunday night as this meant I could have a much needed lie in on Monday morning and a relaxing day before he came from school. The following day Joss went swimming which is something weather dependent he will be doing every Tuesday and Thursday morning. As he obviously can't swim unaided I have to go in the pool and swim with him. It's a nice little swimming pool located in Eastbourne only open during the summer as it's outdoors, and Joss seems to enjoy it so it should be a nice little thing to do with him. After school Joss had conductive so after that he was pretty tired having done swimming in the morning, and all his stretches and walking in the afternoon!
On the Wednesday it was sailing once again, and despite it being pretty windy was surprisingly still on. This made it look fun though as the boats were going really fast although Liz was having an absolute heart attack at the speed and tilting of the boats! Joss seemed to enjoy it though. Joss went round his Dad's for dinner after school which gave me the afternoon off, so I just walked into Eastbourne and found a couple of geocaches and chilled on the beach. The following day was swimming once again in the morning, and it was another really nice day. The school even messaged Thursday evening to say that there would be a one off swimming session the following day too.
On Friday we therefore took Joss swimming in the morning although it was only short swim compared to the previous days. When we got back instead of doing the housework I was asked to wash the cars instead which a nice change. It was Black Friday though so after lunch Liza went out in her nice and clean car and came home with a load of stuff rammed inside it! After school Joss was only home for a couple of hours before his Dad came to pick him up for the weekend. In the evening there was some twilight Christmas parade thing in Petone which I thought I'd check out which was basically a parade followed by someone turning the Christmas lights on. There was quite a lot of people out for it so it was worth seeing.
No comments:
Post a Comment