The Putangirua Pinnacles and Lake Ferry

Aching to explore the North Island, we decided to rent a car and head east. Now, renting a car in New Zealand is slightly complicated. If you call the car company, most places will tell you to book online since it's cheaper. So you go online, book a car, put in your credit card info, and out pops a receipt. BUT, little do you know, all you have is a receipt for a REQUEST, not a BOOKING. So when you call the car rental company on the day you're planning on leaving to tell them that your bus hasn't come yet so you'll be a little late, they tell you that you don't actually have a car because they never sent you a confirmation e-mail.


ARE YOU SERIOUS??!!!!


Not so much fun. On Saturday morning, we were in quite a pickle. We frantically called about five different places, and got one lead in Lower Hutt and one across the street from where we ate breakfast, at Avis. Since it was closer, we thought we'd go with Avis. That is, until we found out there would be a $3000 excess on our insurance since we're all under 25. Not cool. So we called the first place back (whilst in the Avis lobby ... classy), huffed it to Lower Hutt on the bus, got ourselves a Honda Torneo, and were on our way by noon.

We drove east to Lake Ferry, which is located on Palliser bay (it's not actually a lake but a salt lagoon formed by a sand bar). The drive was windy but beautiful, and we'd found a CD on a garbage can outside of Avis that kept us entertained. The reason it was on the garbage (we assume) is because it says it's Placido Domingo, but it's actually the Dire Straights. We loved it. We arrived at the Lake Ferry Hotel by about 3:00 p.m. and threw our stuff into our tiny (but very affordable!) room. The hotel is also a restaurant and bar, and only has about 10 rooms. Its location is unbeatable, and the friendly staff and delicious food made it one of my favourite places we stayed on the North Island.

Lake Ferry by day

... and by night

After dropping our stuff, we got back in the car and drove towards Cape Palliser. About halfway between Lake Ferry and CP lie the Putangirua Pinnacles, about a 45 minute walk from the road. For those Lord of the Rings fans, this is where the Paths of the Dead was filmed ... "The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut."

A very tiny Mal!

The Pinnacles were unreal. They looked like gigantic sand castles; almost like you could pull out a few rocks and they would crumble. I tried climbing up higher a couple of times and initiated some mini-landslides ... Back at Lake Ferry, we set up for a squishy night in our tiny room. It was somewhat reminiscent of a sleepover back in elementary school.

The next morning, we got up nice and early and drove all the way to Cape Palliser to see a candy-striped lighthouse and some seals. The 250 steps up to the top were quite a workout, but it was worth it for the views from the top!

A blustery New Zealand coastline

Our morning excursion was followed by a very long drive up the North Island to Lake Taupo, where we camped for the night with Mal's university friend Tanya.