Cape Palliser is about 50 kilometres from Martinborough. The road takes you across farmland and then hugs the coast until yoou reach the lighthouse.
The area of farmland is on a broad plain. It was here that a number of graziers initially met in the 1800s and combined their flocks of sheep to form New Zealand’;s first sheep station.
A few weeks ago, this area received torrential rain with ocean swells up to 8 metrees high. Damage from that weather is obvious along the road with wash aways and considerable debris in the streams that became flooded in that event. Work has already started to repair the road and in one place, a narrow bridge is down to one lane with a 10 kmh speed limit and can only be crossed by one vehicle at a time.
Here are some of the things that we saw along the way.
This little church is in the middle of nowhere. Alongside it is a cemetery that contains a number of family graves.
Lake Ferry is a small coastal settlement on Palliser Bay and on the eastern shore of Lake Ōnoke. The coast is a popular fishing location and the settlement has a mixture of permanent and holiday homes, along with a camping ground. There is an historic hotel close to the sea coast at the point where the lake flows into Palliser Bay. The ocean outlet of Lake Ōnoke is frequently closed by natural wave action on the beach, and this can lead to rising water levels in the lake. Natural forces can lead to the opening of the lake outlet, but historically, the lake levels have been controlled by excavating a channel through the beach to the sea to limit flooding of properties around the lake.
The name of the settlement and the hotel comes from a ferry service that previously operated across the lake outlet. The ferry was established following a drowning in 1850. The ferry operator established the Lake Ferry hotel in 1851 to supplement his income.
The road goes as far as Point Palliser. This point is the most southerly point of the North Island. We have now traveled the extent of this island from Cape Reinga at its northern point to Cape Palliser in the south. The point is named after Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser who was a British Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator. He was Captain Cook’s mentor.
The Cape Palliser Lighthouse is located here; it was first lit in 1897 but became automated in 1986. It flashes twice every 20 seconds
On previous visits, we have been able to climb a couple of hundred steps from the car park and take in some wonderful views along the coast from the base of the lighthouse. Unfortunately today, the road was washed out about a kilometre before the lighthouse so had to turn back as we were nable to get there.
Near the lighthouse are severla colonies of fir seals. At first, after looking hard, we saw a couple in a rocky bay but as I walked down to the shore, I found that there were seals everywhere. I nearly steped on one that was sheltering under a Coprosma bush because I couldn’t see it. Many seemed to be going through their annual mount.
One of the people in the car park told me about an Elephant Seal that was resting on rocks in a different area of the cove. I walked along and found this enormos animal hauled out on a rocky beach. It has obviously been lost as these animlas belong in the sub-antarctic islands and not this far north.
(I’ve been working on this line for hours – I’m sure that its mother misses it and to quote Kenny Rodgers, she is probably lying like a lump of lard on some antartctic beach saying “Why must you leave me you seal!”)
Heading back to Marinborough, we passed through the tiny settlement of Ngawi – a rustic, close-knit fishing village on the rugged South Wairarapa coast. It’s famous for using bulldozers to launch boats from its rocky shores.
We saw some picturesque scenery along the way. In. some places, the clifs came right down to the road and we were a bit surprised that there hadn’t been more wash aways along this section of road.
Surfing was a poular activity at some places along the coast.
Back in the farmland area after leavijng the coast behind us, we found a number of properties with significant numbers of hay bales stacked up against the fence line.I understand that animal activists prefer that cattle are fed with the old fashioned oblong shaped hay bales as they say that these round ones don’t give cattle a ‘square meal’.
There must have been some fine days along with the bad weather that I have already talked about. There is a lot of hay around and I know that you “make hay when the sun shines”.
NZ IS FUN