Capes, Seals & Pinnacles

A lazy start today, that is we had a very good continental breakfast at about 08:30. Home made muesli and fresh fruit salad and two flat whites, heaven. The hotel has been converted from what was the old inn and has real character. There is a public bar and a café which is used by tourists and locals alike so there is a good atmosphere. Tonight we have had a relaxed bar meal and wandered round the village, the temperatures have soared during the day. The town of Martinborough is interesting in that it was founded by an Irishman and to show his patriotism he laid the streets out in the shape of the Union Jack. He then named the streets after places that he had visited, so there is Naples Street, New York Street and Oxford Street. I should imagine that it is now a well to do retreat for people from Wellington and a place to visit for the weekend. One sobering sight was the war memorial square and the incredible number of names of those who died in WW1. I later read that out of a population of 1 million, 100,000 went to fight, 60,000 of whom died.
Well today we visited Cape Palliser (the sponsor of Captain Cook) which is the southern most point of North Island. The drive was along a barren shoreline with black beaches unsafe for bathing although there were some serious surfers. At one point there is a huge seal colony right by the road. We were 20 feet from basking seals and took some fantastic photographs. At the end of the road is a lighthouse with 200 odd steps to climb to reach it, needless to say that the views are spectacular. Amazingly at the lighthouse we were the only people.
Also of note was a links golf course, green fees $5 and fairways a bit rough where the greens were surrounded by electrified fences to keep out wildlife.
We then stopped for a picnic lunch at the Putangiura Pinnacles. These are hard to describe but are called badlands erosion so consist of many columns of grey rock very close together. Walking to these involved a very stiff climb for about 40 minutes, but was well worth the effort. By this time it was getting very warm. Then we had a refreshing drink by the sea and then a meander back to the hotel, to repack so that we were ready for the ferry.
Tomorrow it is the ferry to South Island, a gale is forecast, we hope that it does not live up to its reputation.