pinnicles and kapiti

Turns out we only have TWO months left here! EEEKKKSSS!!!!! How do we fit it all in? Yeah, turns out that while I do think we've done a fine job of wandering around the country, we're just going to have to come back. Especially for Milford.
This weekend we headed down south again. Last weekend I had wanted to get down the Putangirua Pinnacles, which is on the southern bit of the the North Island.
We drove down to Wellington on Friday night, wandered downtown and ate Mexican. No joke. Josh happens to love it, and I do love avocados in the form of guacamole. Or any avocados actually. The plan was to find some live music and stay up late. Hmm. Yeah. I wanted to go to bed. Is it bad that I can't stay up past 10pm anymore? Who am I?
Anyhow, Saturday we went to the Frank Kitts market, cause I wanted to see if the underwear girl was still there--the last time were were there a gal had super fun random underwear for sale. Unfortunately, there were fewer stalls and they were all more expensive. Darn it!
We drove a few more hours to get to the Pinnacles--beautiful drive and a beautiful day!
Here's Josh getting ready to tramp. Cause he's a tramper. Hee hee. (PS, you all wait till you see the tramp tshirt Kari made me for tramping!!! I LOVE it a lot!!)


The Pinnacles are one of New Zealand's best examples of badlands erosion.


These lovely geological bits consist of a large number of earth pillars or hoodoos. What, may you ask, is a hoodoo? Oh, let me tell you...(thanks Wikipedia) a hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney and earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos consist of soft sedimentary rock topped by harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects each column from the elements.


So anyway, the hoodoos are located at the head of a valley in the Aorangi Ranges. 7 to 9 million years ago, the Aorangi ranges were an island, and as this was eroded over time, large alluvial fans (deposits in the shape of a fan) formed on its southern shores. Then the land was under water when the sea level went up, and then after the Ice Ages the sea levels went down again. So these deposits have now been exposed to erosion, like wind and water. It is not known exactly how long the pinnacles have been forming but they are thought to be less than 125,000 years old with major erosion probably beginning 7000 years ago and accelerating in the last 1000 years with the deforestation of the area.



Part of the Lord of the Rings (Return of the King, whichever one that is) was filmed on location here. (Not here specifically in this picture, but here in general.) Someone should make a book that has the stills of the movie scenery with pictures of the real thing. Is this already published? They should get on that.

Josh's angry face.

Since my camera is on the fritz (slash has annoying marks in the corner), I've been using Josh's. Turns out the date feature was on and I'm too lazy to try and get rid of them all! Sorry.

Then we headed to Cape Palliser and the lighthouse. Two lighthouses in two weekends!

Cape Palliser is the southernmost point of the North Island - it is in fact considerably further south than Nelson or Blenheim in the South Island.
Those are the 252 steps to climb up.



The area is also home to one of the North Island's largest seal colony.
Don't mind this guy, he's just a bit itchy.

And these guys are just hanging out on the grass. So funny!


A small settlement called Ngawi is near Cape Palliser where the main income comes from crayfish fishing. Some 20 to 30 fishing boats are pushed into the sea on their trailers by bulldozers. Lots of bulldozers. Even pink and purple ones.

Then we drove back to Paraparaumu, which is about 45 minutes north of Wellington. We took an extremely windy road forever. It was very difficult.
The next morning we woke up bright and early and jumped on a boat for about 15 minutes to get to Kapiti Island, which is about 5 miles off the coast from Paraparumu.
Here's a nice bench on the island. That's not going anywhere for a very long time.

WEKA! Those cheeky little birds.

The island was made a bird santuary in 1897. In 1987, the DOC (Dept of Conservation) took over the island. The island is home to a number of native birds (mostly reintroduced), including takahe, kokako, stitchbirds, saddleback, and weka. The brown kiwi and little spotted kiwi were released on the island between 1890 and 1910.
Someone had a great idea to restore the island back to its natural state. Some guys were intent on getting rid of the possum, and set 1.5 MILLION traps. And it worked. Crazy. They also got rid of all the rats. So all of the mammalian predators on the island are gone. They make you look in your bag to make sure no mice got in. :)
There are regular tourist trips to the island, limited to 50 people per day, and it is an especially popular destination for birdwatchers. There were some cute old folk birdwatchers that we got to hang out with.
Here are some guys on the lookout--they heard something rustling around...
I was hoping for a kiwi. No such luck.

Josh's favorite bird--the Tui. That's also his favorite NZ beer.

Pretty flowers.


Crazy kaka--this guy wanted to eat Josh's nose.

Here's a Takahe--a flightless bird that was thought to be extinct back in the day, only to be found again in 1948. It's still endangered, and only about 200 are around in NZ.

The Takahē is the largest living member of the Rallidae; its overall length is up toalmost 25 inches, and average weight is about 6 lbs. It is a "stocky bird, with reduced wings, strong legs and a massive bill."

Now, compare that to the Pukeko, which is below. These guys are about three times lighter, taller, and have longer legs. They can also fly a bit, and aren't endangered...I don't think, anyway.

These are pretty Red-crowned Parakeets. They used to be all over NZ, but are now extinct on the mainland and are confined to the islands like Kapiti.

The island is considered one of NZ's most important sites for bird recovery, as well as a major breeding site for sea birds. It was fun. And pretty.

Looks like Lake Superior!
And then we went home after stopping at a fabulous little cafe called the Red House Cafe. Yum. And I fell asleep in the car. That almost never happens. It was fun.