The southeast tip of New Zealand’s North Island is off the lists of places to go for most visitors. That is unless you are keen on seeing lighthouses and seals while on vacation. On our recent trip to the land of Kiwis we put Cape Palliser towards the top of our “things to do” list. With a busy schedule, this was no easy feat.
New Zealand is not a very big country but when you start driving from point “A” to point “B” it becomes obvious that travel takes longer than you thought. We chose a route south out of Martinborough on Lake Ferry Road for our drive. The scenery is pretty much the same old sheep pastures and bald hills, but otherwise green and pretty. The drive is supposed to take about an hour to get to the cape but no one told us the road was closed!
Passing the locals on the drive south. Cape Palliser
Cape Palliser Road Closed
We had driven about forty kilometers south when we came upon our turnoff and a big “Road Closed” sign greeted us. The choices were limited. Go ahead and see where the road was closed since the sign didn’t bother to elaborate or go somewhere else. After all, one option was Lake Ferry Hotel and its famous roadhouse serving delectable fish and chips and drinks overlooking the ocean. But I decided to drive on and see just how far we could get on this closed road.
First big view of the Pacific Ocean
Onward we drove through the small town of Ngawi on the water with its collection of well-used boat launching bulldozers and watercraft. I marveled at the amount of rust on some of these boat launching tugs and wondered if any of them still worked. Maybe the road department should have summoned the bulldozers to fix the Cape Palliser road?
A colorful boat launching machine
A Long Walk
Next town was Mangatoetoe just past the where the road was blocked. It turned out to be a good idea to drive on past the road closed sign since the road was open to within a couple of kilometers of the lighthouse. We could see it a ways off, but not too far, and parked the car to get ready for a walk.
The walk through the damaged road
The sound of the surf crashing on the rocks and the scent of salty water carried on the breeze set the mood for a pleasant sunny walk by the ocean. The South Island beamed at us from the snowcapped peaks of the Kaikoura Range, quite visible even though it was some hundred and fifty kilometers away. We walked through the damaged road section that had been the cause of closing the road but were able to walk it all the way to the lighthouse.
Sunning fur seals. Cape Palliser
On the way, we saw many of the fur seals that live amongst the rocks and coves. Walking closer to see them better it was soon discovered that they tend to do their business in the same place often and the stench of the coves was powerful! The seals didn’t seem bothered by my curiosity but there have been reports of seals becoming aggressive when approached.
The distant lighthouse
Creature Comforts
There weren’t many other walker’s on the way to the lighthouse, maybe three or four. That suited me just fine to have the place virtually to ourselves. It took us about forty minutes to walk to the Cape Palliser lighthouse base when to my wife’s delight there was a clean and functional outhouse. I investigated it being a kind gentleman to make sure it was not too smelly or full of spiders, and it passed the test.
The loo at the lighthouse
After shooting some video of the nearby fur seals we decided to pass on climbing the 250 wooden stairs to the top of the lighthouse. We figured by the time we got back to the car that would be enough walking for this part of the day. Besides, we had a lamb and kumara pie heating up on the dashboard of our car. There is nothing like a sunny day and using a car’s dashboard to heat up food naturally for a perfect picnic. Back to the car, we walked, but now it seemed everyone that was waiting to hike to the lighthouse was venturing out. I was glad we had the place to ourselves for a while as we saw a couple of dozen walkers on the way to the lighthouse upon exiting the area.
Other happy hikers. Cape Palliser
We drove back to Ngawi and found a few picnic tables overlooking the Pacific Ocean and had lunch. A leftover bottle of wine from Wellington was chosen to match with the lamb pie from Clareville bakery, the winner of the best pie contest in 2011 for their lamb and kumara pie with the lamb bone sticking straight up the middle. A well-deserved first place pie it was, and very delicious as were the pastries we got from them.
The winning pie form Clareville Pies
It was indeed a piece of southern hemisphere heaven with a perfect view and lunch, but it was time to go back to Martinborough by way of Lake Ferry. Even if we weren’t hungry we wanted to see this famous old roadhouse and have a drink. It was a fun day of exploring Cape Palliser, a place not heavily visited. We got in some good walking, picnicking, photography, and saw the famous lighthouse and Lake Ferry Hotel. This would be hard to beat, even in New Zealand.
Lake Ferry menu. Cape Palliser
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