(written on February 6th from notes taken previously)
Nice to have been able to have this place to stay last night. 🙏
Grateful to have the bathroom to use and to empty my onboard containers.
With the destinations that I have in mind from here, I’ve been looking to fill up on fuel each opportunity that I get, so I’m not stuck somewhere worried about running out of fuel.
The next major destination on the docket is Castle Point, yet another repeat visit from my last trip.
I loved Castle Point.
Finding fuel with a little bit of a challenge, has it sometimes is with many of the gas stations being self pay stations that I can’t use.
The self-pay stations are always the cheapest, usually about 10 cents per liter cheaper, but whatever. Eventually, I found a station I could use, filled up again, and headed out to Castle Point.
Once again, however, I failed to notice the day of the week. 😅
Sunday.
And the place was absolutely slammed.
Oh. My. Freaking. Crap.
😶
I hate crowds. 😅
So far to go just to be out in the middle of a gazillion people. 😕
Crowds are just… such a turn off for me.
But I was there, so… might as well make the most of it, right?
Making the most of it looked like camping out in my van doing some journal catch up work for a good little while. 😆
I think after a while it dawned on me that if I was just going to be doing journal catch up, I might as well do it from a place with a beautiful view, so I decided to go hike up Castle Rock again (I did that last time, too).
So off I went, climbing to the top and hanging out there for a good long time, just chilling and taking pictures.
It was an easier hike up this time. Last time, though it wasn’t a rainy day, I think it had been raining? I remember parts of the pike up being slippery from being wet.
But it was dry this time, so it was easy.
I also spent a while chatting with the New Zealand family that was up there from… Wellington? a father with older teenage? daughter and younger son.
After spending a little bit of time with them, they wandered off, and I stayed there hanging out even longer.
Chatted with another gentleman for a while who talked about an earthquake that it happened just a couple of days ago. It was strong enough that I should have felt it, and there was one time where I thought maybe I felt an earthquake, but I don’t think it was the same day or time?
Anyway, the man mentioned that the area near where I had been sitting had sluffed off during a previous earthquake (it’s sort of an overhang with a sheer drop off below on one side, and a super duper steep hill on the other that ends in a drop off as well in some places.
Eventually, I left my little overlook spot and headed all the way to the very top. There I chatted with all older woman I found by herself taking in the beautiful, people-free vistas to the south.
It’s amazing how little distance is necessary to travel to get away from crowds.
And often how those little jaunts away from the crowd lead you to even more memorable adventures and vistas.
Anyway, the lady said she’d been coming to that spot for decades, I think it was. We chatted only briefly, as I didn’t want to bother her in her little private meditation spot.
Feeling a bit of a time crunch because I’m heading to the South Island tomorrow and still want to make it to the Dimholt Rd filming site tonight 🙃, I headed down, back to my van, and drove away, not stopping until I reached the car park of the hike I wanted to go on.
Or at least the hike I thought I wanted to go on. 😅
The hike turned out to be steep, mostly up walk. Up. Up. Up. 😅
I was dripping sweat.
Eventually, I made it to the overlook of the Putangirua Pinnacles (the main attraction in which the Dimholt Road is found).
But that was just the overlook! (At which some inconsiderate person has left their #2 droppings along with a used we wipe. 😒)
There was a path down to the valley below where you could walk amidst the different pinnacles and find the actual filming spot, but the trail was listed as being closed because of slips that had taken out sections of it.
Buuuuuuut, I decided to see how badly the trail was damaged. 🙃
What I found was that there was a section that was completely destroyed, but it was only a brief little scramble to get past it.
Once past, I was able to get down relatively easily.
The sun was going down, maybe an hour left? at this point before it disappeared behind the ocean.
That made for beautiful light and color contrasts. 😊
It took me a little while, but eventually, I was able to find the entrance to the Dimholt Road.
Unfortunately, taking pictures of it in a way that made it look like the movie was… not realistic. There was too much of a slope, but it was fun to be there. 🙃
The overall landscape was just… cool. 😊
The walk back felt so much longer than the walk up. I’m not sure why, but I kept thinking I was almost back when I wasn’t. I ran into a New Zealand couple walking back as well, one of them apparently a documentary movie actor who I think owned gazillions of acres in New Zealand?
Super down-to-earth guy.
Eventually, I made my way back, and drove away from the car park toward the setting sun.
I stopped for a while, a couple different times, to take pictures as the sun set, before pointing the van back North.
My next destination was Wellington and the ferry the following morning, but the mountain range between where I was and Wellington didn’t have any roads going through it, so you had to go back north to go around.
There was a freedom camping spot next to the north end of Lake Wairarapa that I crashed at, setting my alarm for early tomorrow morning, so as to give myself enough time to make it into Wellington with plenty of time for the ferry.
Another day in the books, and my last night in the North Island for a good little while!
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 