© 2024 Jaroš Obu

Cart

Wellington and Wairarapa 27.-29.12.2019

Hello Northern Island.

Sea became stormier closer to the destination we got.

And here we could see several albatrosses gliding above the ocean without having to pay 50 € at Taiaroa Head.

The wind was strong enough to cause water spray and rainbow ...

and a lot of fun for Jaroš.

Anti mama boys club member preferred to hide behind the corner.

Arriving in Wellington.

Evening Wellington from what we thought would be the view from our room.

Heavily propertised wooden houses on the slopes of the city.

Botanical garden.

Cuba Street is the most prominent street in Wellington.

It is a more bohemian area with lively social and artistic life.

LGBT pedestrian crossing with ghosts crossing.

The Bucket Fountain.

Older buildings.

And more modern central business district over the Whairepo Lagoon.

Te Papa Promenade.

The city spreads out to quite steep slopes.

Museum of New Zealand.

With the correct entrance and free admission for the most of the exhibitions.

We spend most of the time in the nature part of museum. Five different kiwi species.

Moa was a flightless bird that reached up to 3.5 m of size. It got extinct around 100 years after the Maori settled the New Zealand.

Haast's eagle was the largest known eagle on Earth reaching up to 15 kilos with a wingspand up to 3 metres. Its size is a evolutionary response on feeding on moa. It got extinct together with extinction of its prey.

An example of the giant squid.

Returning to City to Sea Bridge at Whairepo Lagoon.

It is a public artwork created by Māori artist Paratene Matchitt.

Wellington City Gallery on Civic Square.

Another interesting sculpture.

Older buildings are giving space to the modern ones.

Steep streets on a way to Mount Victoria.

View from the Mount Victoria towards the southern part of the city.

With the airport separating peninsula from the mainland.

Panorama of the city.

And already at Remutaka Pass heading towards east to explore more natural wonders of New Zealand.

While hills of the Northern Island are mostly still covered with forests, the lowlands are extensively used for agriculture.

We arrived at the Pinnacles Campsite in the evening.

And went on an evening hike through deep forest ...

Deep forest gradually turned into manuka bushes.

Many badlands in Putangirua Valley.

Putangirua Pinnacles are the main attraction.

Pillars are partially protected by harder sediment layers.

And here we are in the valley among the pinnacles.

These are layers of unconsolidated sandstones and conglomerates dating to Miocene (12-14 million years).

Also harder rock pieces with very abundant fossils can be found there.

The formation of Pinnacles probably accelerated due to deforestation during the last 1000 years.

Harder sediments protect pillars from rainsplash erosion.

Vegetation seems to be able to protect them as well.

TIme to return back to the campsite.

We decided to visit another cave south of Martinborough. This gate is closing the road and access to the valley with the cave.

It looks like they have some strange new laws that the property owner is responsible for people entering it.

We were lucky to meet the land owner there that gave us permission to visit the caves. At least the New Zealanders are often kind and reasonable. The Ruakokoputuna Stream on the left.

Entrance to the Ruakokoputuna Cave with the sinking stream.

The entrance from the inside out.

Quite wide but not so high elliptical passage.

The light show starts already close to the entrance.

It is quite challenging to use the right amount of light for rather weakly glowing larvaes.

Galaxy of light above the water.

Nice photos are often made by mistake. Justyna mistakenly turned on red torch.

And the photo with the photographer's better half.

One without any artificial light.

And one already close to the exit. There seem to be quite strong floods in the cave if such a tree trunk was deposited vertically.

The passage gets quite low at the exit.

Sandals were a better choice for this cave :)

Looks like these are remnants of the older cave adjacent to the active one.

It was denudated to a roofless cave.

Afternoon refreshment in a river before heading north.

Childish Jaroš.