Friday, October 3
Wairarapa
For my birthday weekend, the girls and I decided we should plan something fun and get out of Wellington at least for a couple of days. We spent Thursday afternoon lining up a rental car and a bed and breakfast for the following night. The latter part of this was quite difficult, and we spent at least 4 hours researching and calling various B&Bs before we found one that looked nice and had a vacancy. We settled on Beatson’s B&B in Martinborough, in the heart of the Wairarapa region, where we planned to have our adventure.
On Friday morning, we picked up our rental car around 10, ready to head up north on a beautiful sunny morning. We were thwarted slightly in our plans, however, when I got behind the wheel and didn’t realize that the parking brake was still on. I never use it in the States, so it never occurred to me to check it. We subsequently drove up the motorway almost peeing ourselves with laughter as our white Mazda Familia made a horrible screeching sound with every turn of the wheels. To be fair, however, neither Jamie nor Andrea noticed the hand break on, either. Instead, we drove back to the rental place, only to be basically told we were morons. Yay driving!
Once we had collected ourselves, we got back on the motorway, destination Castlepoint. We stopped at Subway in Lower Hutt, and then drove straight on through. The drive took a little over two hours, with the beginning part of it consisting of weaving along the Rimutaka Road, a winding, nerve-wracking road that skirts the sides of the Rimutaka Ranges. The drive also consisted of Jamie shoving candied babies into my mouth on said winding road, and Andrea grossing Jamie out with a “chicken liver.” I think it was actually a burnt bit of cheese from Andrea’s sub, but Andrea had Jamie convinced it was something much more sinister. I threatened to throw them both out of the car at least once.
We arrived at Castlepoint in the early afternoon. Castlepoint isn’t so much a city, but rather a point of interest on the east coast of New Zealand. It’s a scenic reserve (though, in NZ, you can find those around every corner) that was named by Captain Cook way back when when he compared one of the cliffs to a castle. I’m not sure I could see it myself, but whatever.
Castlepoint is definitely worth a visit, and I’m really glad we went there. The area consists of a series of limestone cliffs that jut out into the sea, surrounded by an arm of reef and sand dunes. Where the reef cuts off the ocean, waves often breach it to form a lagoon between it and the dunes. On a sunny
day like we had, it was really stunning. 
But it was also very very windy. Hands down, Castlepoint is the windiest place I have ever visited, and that’s saying something coming from Ohio and, now, Wellington. As soon as we arrived and got out of the car, I regretted putting in a new pair of contacts that morning, knowing they were only going to get sand scratched.
Jamie and Andrea began our Castlepoint adventure by attempting to “surf” down the sand dunes using the floor mats from Shornty, our rental car. Needless to say, this was a bit of a bust. But at least it was funny to watch.
Next we headed off to explore the lagoon and reef. We had planned to walk along the reef between the cliffs and Castle Rock, but the wind was too strong, and all we were getting was a faceful of sand. So we decided to
make for the cliffs, instead. 
Not unlike in other countries I’ve visited, I’ve noticed that New Zealand isn’t really all that concerned with liability and people getting hurt. It’s probably because no one can sue each other here. But whatever the reason, it meant that us girls were pretty much free to do as we pleased on the cliffs. We climbed up, down, and all around the area, hanging over edges and shimmy-ing along ledges meters up in the air. But we had fun, and no one died, so I suppose it was well worth the risk.
We caught glimpses into some underwater caves, and even saw a lone fur seal lazily swimming along the bottom of the cliffs. On such a clear day, the water was an unreal shade of blue, broken up only by the foamy white-capped waves pushed along in front of the strong wind.
We spent hours hiking, climbing and sitting up in the cliffs, enjoying the surroundings and the beautiful day. Up away from the beach, we were safe from the blowing sand. Not from the wind by any means, though. When we walked up to the lighthouse, we understood why there was a fence on one side of the path as we were forced into it by a particularly nasty gust of wind.
After getting our fill of rock climbing and photos, we headed back to the car. It was at least an hour and a half to Martinborough from Castlepoint, and we wanted to try and get there well before sunset so that we could make it down to Lake Ferry.
Jamie drove us down to Martinborough, where we dropped our things off at our B&B before heading back out again. As we made our way through town, we found Ohio Street, and naturally stopped to take photos. We found out later from the owner of the B&B that a lot of the street names in Martinborough are of places the town’s founder had visited. Also included were Kansas, New York, Broadway (I think perhaps he was slightly confused there), along with some French towns.
We made our way down to Lake Ferry, about half an hour south of Martinborough along a scenic country road. We passed farms and wineries, and very few other cars. Andrea had been told by one of her Massey lecturers that Lake Ferry was famous for its sunsets and its fish and chips.
Wairarapa
For my birthday weekend, the girls and I decided we should plan something fun and get out of Wellington at least for a couple of days. We spent Thursday afternoon lining up a rental car and a bed and breakfast for the following night. The latter part of this was quite difficult, and we spent at least 4 hours researching and calling various B&Bs before we found one that looked nice and had a vacancy. We settled on Beatson’s B&B in Martinborough, in the heart of the Wairarapa region, where we planned to have our adventure.
On Friday morning, we picked up our rental car around 10, ready to head up north on a beautiful sunny morning. We were thwarted slightly in our plans, however, when I got behind the wheel and didn’t realize that the parking brake was still on. I never use it in the States, so it never occurred to me to check it. We subsequently drove up the motorway almost peeing ourselves with laughter as our white Mazda Familia made a horrible screeching sound with every turn of the wheels. To be fair, however, neither Jamie nor Andrea noticed the hand break on, either. Instead, we drove back to the rental place, only to be basically told we were morons. Yay driving!
Once we had collected ourselves, we got back on the motorway, destination Castlepoint. We stopped at Subway in Lower Hutt, and then drove straight on through. The drive took a little over two hours, with the beginning part of it consisting of weaving along the Rimutaka Road, a winding, nerve-wracking road that skirts the sides of the Rimutaka Ranges. The drive also consisted of Jamie shoving candied babies into my mouth on said winding road, and Andrea grossing Jamie out with a “chicken liver.” I think it was actually a burnt bit of cheese from Andrea’s sub, but Andrea had Jamie convinced it was something much more sinister. I threatened to throw them both out of the car at least once.
We arrived at Castlepoint in the early afternoon. Castlepoint isn’t so much a city, but rather a point of interest on the east coast of New Zealand. It’s a scenic reserve (though, in NZ, you can find those around every corner) that was named by Captain Cook way back when when he compared one of the cliffs to a castle. I’m not sure I could see it myself, but whatever.
Castlepoint is definitely worth a visit, and I’m really glad we went there. The area consists of a series of limestone cliffs that jut out into the sea, surrounded by an arm of reef and sand dunes. Where the reef cuts off the ocean, waves often breach it to form a lagoon between it and the dunes. On a sunny
day like we had, it was really stunning. 
But it was also very very windy. Hands down, Castlepoint is the windiest place I have ever visited, and that’s saying something coming from Ohio and, now, Wellington. As soon as we arrived and got out of the car, I regretted putting in a new pair of contacts that morning, knowing they were only going to get sand scratched.
Jamie and Andrea began our Castlepoint adventure by attempting to “surf” down the sand dunes using the floor mats from Shornty, our rental car. Needless to say, this was a bit of a bust. But at least it was funny to watch.
Next we headed off to explore the lagoon and reef. We had planned to walk along the reef between the cliffs and Castle Rock, but the wind was too strong, and all we were getting was a faceful of sand. So we decided to
make for the cliffs, instead. 
Not unlike in other countries I’ve visited, I’ve noticed that New Zealand isn’t really all that concerned with liability and people getting hurt. It’s probably because no one can sue each other here. But whatever the reason, it meant that us girls were pretty much free to do as we pleased on the cliffs. We climbed up, down, and all around the area, hanging over edges and shimmy-ing along ledges meters up in the air. But we had fun, and no one died, so I suppose it was well worth the risk. 
We caught glimpses into some underwater caves, and even saw a lone fur seal lazily swimming along the bottom of the cliffs. On such a clear day, the water was an unreal shade of blue, broken up only by the foamy white-capped waves pushed along in front of the strong wind. 
We spent hours hiking, climbing and sitting up in the cliffs, enjoying the surroundings and the beautiful day. Up away from the beach, we were safe from the blowing sand. Not from the wind by any means, though. When we walked up to the lighthouse, we understood why there was a fence on one side of the path as we were forced into it by a particularly nasty gust of wind.After getting our fill of rock climbing and photos, we headed back to the car. It was at least an hour and a half to Martinborough from Castlepoint, and we wanted to try and get there well before sunset so that we could make it down to Lake Ferry.
Jamie drove us down to Martinborough, where we dropped our things off at our B&B before heading back out again. As we made our way through town, we found Ohio Street, and naturally stopped to take photos. We found out later from the owner of the B&B that a lot of the street names in Martinborough are of places the town’s founder had visited. Also included were Kansas, New York, Broadway (I think perhaps he was slightly confused there), along with some French towns.We made our way down to Lake Ferry, about half an hour south of Martinborough along a scenic country road. We passed farms and wineries, and very few other cars. Andrea had been told by one of her Massey lecturers that Lake Ferry was famous for its sunsets and its fish and chips.
We had dinner at the Lake Ferry Hotel – basically the only multi-room building in Lake Ferry. We were a little late for sunset, but we caught a glimpse of it over the eerie white clouds that laid like a blanket over the Rimutakas in the distance. I had the Famous Ferry Fish and Chips, while Jamie and Andrea had garlic bread and soup (they don’t like seafood). For dessert, we ordered Mars Bars Cheesecake, which was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. Jamie paid for my meal as my birthday gift, and we headed back to the B&B to relax for the evening.We watched a little TV, tried to brush and wash the sand out of our hair, and turned in early, preparing for a
nother busy day on Saturday.
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