The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Cape Palliser, 1

Not many miles beyond the Dimholt Road is Cape Palliser, the North Island's southernmost point, and a free DOC campground, right on the beach.

Cape Palliser

And its lighthouse

Along the way, a beach house, or "bach" (batch), as Kiwis
call them

Facilities at the campground; we've never seen one cabled-down;
hmmmm...

We considered parking on the pebble beach

But decided not; at our age, proximity to the bathroom outweighs
scenic view in priority

This is the end of the road along the southeast coast; a couple
hundred miles north to the next coastal pavement the road does
not go ever on from here

Night-time light house

Next morning I climbed up to the light house and its deck

252 steps, the sign said

Leftover old hauling machinery

Nice views of the sparse environs

The DOC campground below

"You Must Take The Dimholt Road"

Along the southeastern bit of the North Island, not many miles from its southernmost point, Cape Palliser, is Putangirua Scenic Reserve, aka the Putangirua Pinnacles, and as the North Island's "badlands," and finally as the setting for the Dimholt Road scenes from LOTR's Return of the King. It is off the beaten track and, understandably, one of the least visited LOTR sites. The Road leads into the mountain of the dead, from which none return, where even the dwarf is terrified to go...

It's all 2-3k up a supposedly dry creek bed

(Pinnacles)

The trail turns toward the head-wall, and Vicki, who is ahead of me, disappears;
she forgot to take Narsil with her, too; meanwhile, as I am recording the drama,
a bee climbs up my pants and stings me right on the kneecap; good thing it
didn't get any higher; in any case, hike over...

I am not reacting as serenely as Legolas might have; for more on
the Morgul bee incident, as it came to be called, see https://roadeveron.
blogspot.com/2018/04/quaint-curious-quirky-kooky_5.html

A look back down the trail

Much of the rock here laden with fossils

Most of it--all of the pinnacles--conglomerate

Despite the injury and pain, I have added to the cairn; testament to those who
have traversed the Dimholt Road and returned

Looking back to the bay

The real roads are scary enough

Very badlandy

Rivendell, 2018

Our itinerary now took us across a bit of the island, from west to east, above Wellington, to Cape Palliser, the southernmost point on the North Island. Along the way were two LOTR sites, Rivendell, aka Kaitoke Regional Park, which we visited in 2009, and the Dimholt Road, aka Putangirua Scenic Reserve, which we had not heard of before 2018.

Our 2014 satnav, featuring the voice of Darth Vader, found us an
interesting shortcut, crossing perhaps 20k of single lane mountain
road; at least there were no tour buses

Aka Rivendell; we'd visited on a movie tour in 2009; it is still
one of the few LOTR places on public land where there is
official signage; augmented considerably, since 2009, by the
still operating movie tour companies

Official park signage

The rest added by the movie tour companies

Very informative

All these scenes shot nearly 20 years ago; Jackson
and Co. were particularly careful to see that
nothing was harmed, that only footprints were
left behind; seriously; it's New Zealand