Cape Palliser and Martinborough

The southernmost point of the North Island: the Cape Palliser lighthouse

After having climbed Mt Taranaki (by now over a month ago) we headed south towards Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. While in the region, we visited the southernmost point of the North Island and the Martinborough wine district. It was a magical moment to stand next to the Cape Palliser lighthouse. After all, now we had conquered the whole North Island. It took us 136 days to explore it!

It was awesome

Cape Palliser is quite remote. As we were driving there, we were suddenly confronted by an unusual road block having passed a blind curve. The road was filled with cows. We had to stop and wait for the pack of cows to wander by while they smelled on our car and marveled at us. Cape Palliser lies in the middle of a seal colony. When we arrived some seals were frolicking in the water just off the shore and tried to get their lunch. It was nice to watch how easily they swam in the turbulent water amidst very sharp and dangerous rocks.

What are you looking at?

There was good surfing waves too but we didn't start our surf careers yet.

JBB having some fun with the seals

After a good morning with the seals we headed to Martinborough - a well known wine district, most famous for its New World pinot noirs. This time we didn't go on a commercial wine tour but drove around some wineries ourselves instead. This time Giigan got to be the designated driver. We improved our wine know-how with four wineries: Murdoch James, Ata Rangi, Te Kairanga and Alana Estate. Of these four we liked the wines of Ata Rangi the most. In fact, it was also the one making you feel most welcome and the one with the best service. After this we felt more confident touring wineries by ourselves. It's typical for vintages from the Martinborough district to have very different flavours. We tasted, for instance, 2006 and 2007 wines of the same producer and grape, and found that they had indeed distinct flavours.

JBB at the Ata Rangi winery sampling its great Pinot Noir

Stay tuned for our next blog post, telling you about Wellington and the arrival of our first Finnish visitors.

Business as usual: MORE PICTURES available by clicking this link (hyvä että tietotekniikkaekspertimme Samikin on päässyt tästä lisäkuvien sijainnista kärryille pienen avunannon jälkeen ;-)).