Castlepoint Station
Greetings! I am now in Wellington! Well, near Wellington... Lower Hutt, to be exact, also known as "The Hutt" along with Upper Hutt, apparently. I do not see an abundance of huts, so I am not sure where this name came from. :p
My friend Juli has arrived to accompany me on my travels for the last month! I don't think I mentioned that this was in the plan, but it was all arranged way back when the trip was first in the works, and I am very pleased to have her company. :) I picked her up from the airport last night and impressively, she seems to have already recovered from her jet lag.
We are staying with Richard and Arleigh, who own the sleepout I was staying in in Masterton. Juli and I are going to take the ferry over to the South Island in a day or two and camp + hostel it for the next three weeks, and then we fly out on February 6th. We will not have regular internet access while on the road, and so I realize that if I have any hope of getting the blog up to date, I am going to have to write less about my recent adventures and for the most part, simply post the photos from them. So prepare to be inundated with photographic goodies!
I do need to explain a bit about this post, though, and caption some of the photos or they won't make sense. To start, here is a synopsis of the weekend of December 18th and 19th: Richard and Arleigh know the owners of one of the biggest sheep stations (farms) in New Zealand, which is 35,000 head (!) and is located about an hour from Masterton in the village of Castlepoint. They got me in touch with the owners and I headed out there for a bit of a tour, but I ended up doing so much more! The primary tourist attraction in Castlepoint is the lighthouse, so I walked up there first and then met up with Emily. I was introduced to their horses (I didn't even know they had any, so this was a pleasant surprise) and was invited for dinner with the family. Afterward, their daughter (another Sarah), her boyfriend (Pete), a friend (Felicity) and I all went caving in the rocks underneath the lighthouse! Then in the morning, three of us went for a horseback ride on the beach... I certainly didn't expect that to be in the cards, but of course I was thrilled to bits! We went for the BEST gallop... sand flying, wind stinging my eyes... waves crashing next to me... yup, it doesn't get any better than that!
Not an uncommon sign to see in coastal areas. NZ gets something like 400 earthquakes a day (most are too small to feel, though), but there's always the possibility of a big one triggering a tsunami! See big wave... run for hills!
Sign in the bathroom block.
Tractors used to pull fishing boats up onto land.
Walking up to the lighthouse.
I walked down the stairs on the opposite side and they led right onto the reef!
In the opposite direction is Castle Rock, which you can climb (but I did not).
A storm blew in shortly afterward.
It gave the lighthouse a whole new look as it highlighted it in sunshine... beautiful!
I went over to the station, where a visiting friend of the family, Felicity introduced me to the horses.
This horse came with the family's purchase of the station in 1998, and he was an old boy then. Get this... he is now 38 years old!! Can hardly tell other than the sway back, hey?
He's in with this gorgeous palomino two year old, Chief, to pass along some manners.
Sparky snuffling Felicity (this is the horse I got to ride the next day).
We had a lovely roast dinner, and then we all took Pete's dog for a walk and on the way back, decided we should check out the cave under the lighthouse. The others have been before, but not in the dark, so they were up for an adventure! You have to go at low tide. We found this old motorcycle along the way, which has obviously been the victim of high tide!
Sarah, Pete, and Felicity.
I heard this barking/growling sound as we walked along, and turned to find a lone seal about 5m away! I had difficulty getting a shot of him in focus and decided to stop flashing the poor thing with focusing pre-flashes on my camera. :p PS: He was obviously used to people coming along this stretch of rock since he didn't scoot off to the ocean right away, but was surprised by our nighttime arrival!
After clamouring over razor-sharp rocks in the dark and wading through tidal pools, we eventually got to the cave. You can walk right through it to the other side of the reef the lighthouse is on, but it looked a bit treacherous to explore that part in the dark.
Night cave explorer extraordinaire!
I did a night exposure of the lighthouse on the way back.
In the morning we went up to the shearing shed. What a site! There were about four shearers working at lightning speed... I guess you have to when you have thousands to do!
A "ramsey" collects the shorn wool...
...picks it up (where did he go? lol!) and puts it into bins that are then compressed by hand and turned into...
Wool cubes!
Waiting their turn...
Lamby!
Holy wooly sheep! How does it WALK?
Having trouble sleeping, anyone?
We then went out for a tour of the station.
They have a bach (holiday house) by the beach.
Then we went back to the house and grabbed some ponies! Sparky was a bit naughty to catch. :p
Pete with Ruby.
Sarah's horse, Jordy.
Sparky and I after the ride. I had left my compact camera in Masterton, so no ride photos unfortunately!
I wanted some shots of Chief, so we separated him from his babysitter, who until then he simply ran in circles around when we tried to get some action out of him, haha.
But our technique worked perfectly!
Sarah and Pete with the old fella (if you can't tell, his name has escaped me!).
Pete's dog.
Flowers at the house.
THE END!
My friend Juli has arrived to accompany me on my travels for the last month! I don't think I mentioned that this was in the plan, but it was all arranged way back when the trip was first in the works, and I am very pleased to have her company. :) I picked her up from the airport last night and impressively, she seems to have already recovered from her jet lag.
We are staying with Richard and Arleigh, who own the sleepout I was staying in in Masterton. Juli and I are going to take the ferry over to the South Island in a day or two and camp + hostel it for the next three weeks, and then we fly out on February 6th. We will not have regular internet access while on the road, and so I realize that if I have any hope of getting the blog up to date, I am going to have to write less about my recent adventures and for the most part, simply post the photos from them. So prepare to be inundated with photographic goodies!
I do need to explain a bit about this post, though, and caption some of the photos or they won't make sense. To start, here is a synopsis of the weekend of December 18th and 19th: Richard and Arleigh know the owners of one of the biggest sheep stations (farms) in New Zealand, which is 35,000 head (!) and is located about an hour from Masterton in the village of Castlepoint. They got me in touch with the owners and I headed out there for a bit of a tour, but I ended up doing so much more! The primary tourist attraction in Castlepoint is the lighthouse, so I walked up there first and then met up with Emily. I was introduced to their horses (I didn't even know they had any, so this was a pleasant surprise) and was invited for dinner with the family. Afterward, their daughter (another Sarah), her boyfriend (Pete), a friend (Felicity) and I all went caving in the rocks underneath the lighthouse! Then in the morning, three of us went for a horseback ride on the beach... I certainly didn't expect that to be in the cards, but of course I was thrilled to bits! We went for the BEST gallop... sand flying, wind stinging my eyes... waves crashing next to me... yup, it doesn't get any better than that!
Not an uncommon sign to see in coastal areas. NZ gets something like 400 earthquakes a day (most are too small to feel, though), but there's always the possibility of a big one triggering a tsunami! See big wave... run for hills!
Sign in the bathroom block.
Tractors used to pull fishing boats up onto land.
Walking up to the lighthouse.
I walked down the stairs on the opposite side and they led right onto the reef!
In the opposite direction is Castle Rock, which you can climb (but I did not).
A storm blew in shortly afterward.
It gave the lighthouse a whole new look as it highlighted it in sunshine... beautiful!
I went over to the station, where a visiting friend of the family, Felicity introduced me to the horses.
This horse came with the family's purchase of the station in 1998, and he was an old boy then. Get this... he is now 38 years old!! Can hardly tell other than the sway back, hey?
He's in with this gorgeous palomino two year old, Chief, to pass along some manners.
Sparky snuffling Felicity (this is the horse I got to ride the next day).
We had a lovely roast dinner, and then we all took Pete's dog for a walk and on the way back, decided we should check out the cave under the lighthouse. The others have been before, but not in the dark, so they were up for an adventure! You have to go at low tide. We found this old motorcycle along the way, which has obviously been the victim of high tide!
Sarah, Pete, and Felicity.
I heard this barking/growling sound as we walked along, and turned to find a lone seal about 5m away! I had difficulty getting a shot of him in focus and decided to stop flashing the poor thing with focusing pre-flashes on my camera. :p PS: He was obviously used to people coming along this stretch of rock since he didn't scoot off to the ocean right away, but was surprised by our nighttime arrival!
After clamouring over razor-sharp rocks in the dark and wading through tidal pools, we eventually got to the cave. You can walk right through it to the other side of the reef the lighthouse is on, but it looked a bit treacherous to explore that part in the dark.
Night cave explorer extraordinaire!
I did a night exposure of the lighthouse on the way back.
In the morning we went up to the shearing shed. What a site! There were about four shearers working at lightning speed... I guess you have to when you have thousands to do!
A "ramsey" collects the shorn wool...
...picks it up (where did he go? lol!) and puts it into bins that are then compressed by hand and turned into...
Wool cubes!
Waiting their turn...
Lamby!
Holy wooly sheep! How does it WALK?
Having trouble sleeping, anyone?
We then went out for a tour of the station.
They have a bach (holiday house) by the beach.
Then we went back to the house and grabbed some ponies! Sparky was a bit naughty to catch. :p
Pete with Ruby.
Sarah's horse, Jordy.
Sparky and I after the ride. I had left my compact camera in Masterton, so no ride photos unfortunately!
I wanted some shots of Chief, so we separated him from his babysitter, who until then he simply ran in circles around when we tried to get some action out of him, haha.
But our technique worked perfectly!
Sarah and Pete with the old fella (if you can't tell, his name has escaped me!).
Pete's dog.
Flowers at the house.
THE END!