Castle point is a small little holiday surf destination with "lots" (like 30) of cottages all nestled around the little bay. It has some pretty mean wave action which has made some good rock formations from all the erosion. It was called Castlepoint because Captain Cook thought the rock formations looked like fortress walls, like a castle would have. In some of the pics we've taken you can see the neat views. The bay is protected by a big reef that curves out and rises up (like a castle wall). As you can also tell from the pics, it's not summer here. We have decided to rent a cottage/"bach" (pronounced "batch") in summer with some friends and do some better checking out of the place.
This was a creation on Castlepoint beach, called, "The Home of the Lost Soles", a memoriam to old flipflops/jandals and other sandals. On the bottom, there was even an old cast from someone's foot!
After the Castlepoint stop we drove backcountry Targa racing style until we happened upon the longest place name in the world.
This was the road sign that signalled to us to stop. The reason you might not stop is because the "place" is really not much of a place. Just a place where something did happen a long time ago, but with no substantial significant landmark left behind, just a story (see my previous blog entry for the story).
Needless to say, it was worth the drive. I love random stuff like this. And I would even like to brag to say, I can say the whole name by memory. I learnt it so that one day, when some quiz is on, or a crucial moment in a Trivial Pursuit game arises, I can let the geek within me shine and speak fluent Maori for that one moment in time!
Note the length of the car parked in front of the sign, and the sign still being longer than the car.
After the excitement of the longest place name in the world sign, we headed off to Napier to stay with Carl and Denise for the weekend. Rod and Donal had planned to join us there as well, so we had a great weekend hanging out with everyone. Bryce and the boys got lots of riding done and Denise and I got a tramp done at a place called "Blowhard Bush". You will notice in the pictures that the place is aptly named. It was a cool hike, with neat caves which the track was built around and through. Rumour has it that an outcasted family had escaped into this part of the bush back in the 1800's and lived in one of the caves; this made for some interesting discussion of what parts of which cave would have been suitable for living in and so on. We got right into one cave and just as I was checking out a very dark corner and hoping that the roof was high enough so that the weta's (yucky native insects with lots of legs, like a massive cricket) that love dark spaces would choose to remain on the rock and not on my hair......something tickled my neck. I let out a scream and a shiver, and then felt slightly embarrassed. C'mon, raindrops can be creepy..... when in a cave!!
After that walk, we checked out an old Maori pa ("pah") site, which is just a settlement on a hill, where they would have been able to check out to see if any enemies were coming close to attack them. Some of the old pallisades still remain, but the rest of the walk was a bit left to the imagination. Nevertheless, there is something great about finally stopping and checking out something you always say, "oh, we should stop there someday". Well, someday should sometimes be today!
Great weekend and a nice break from work and trying to keep busy during the holiday.
Hopefully we can keep doing interesting things and our camera stays nice to us so I can keep updating this. Till then, let me know how you are doing.
PS. Neat pic of the chickens at the maori pa site. I like chickens.
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