Lord Weekly - TOP 10 EDITION!: Labour Weekend

Denali and I have been pretty sick recently. I was at home 3 days last week with headaches, vomiting and a stomach bug. Denali has had much the same, but without the vomiting. Sophie has been fine.

It's Labour Day today and the weather in Wellington has taken its usual uninspiring turn. However, yesterday was an absolute stunner!

Yesterday morning Anna Davidson joined us as we piled into the car to head over the hills into the Wairarapa. We enjoyed stunning blue skies and deep green rolling hills for two hours all the way to Cape Palliser, where we finally found The Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles are giant rock spire formations caused by erosion. Peter Jackson has shot two scenes here for two different films. He shot the 'Paths of the Dead' scene for Return of the King, and he shot the prologue for 'Brain Dead', one of his early splatter films. We had lunch before beginning the trek.

We decided to take the 1.5hour round trip into the pinnacles. You walk up a stream bed for about 40mins until the bush is stripped away exposing the towering spires all around you. It's a wonderfully dark and eerie place.

You can venture off the stream bed to explore the claustrophobic paths leading between the spires. It's quite dangerous to do so as the rock is very unstable, especially after rainfall. The temperature dramatically drops as you explore between the spires too.

I carried Sophie in a backpack there and back. After about 25 mins I could hear her snoring in my ear. I don't think she saw much of the pinnacles.

We then drove further round Cape Palliser to a small rural town called Ngawi. We had icecreams by the beach and just enjoyed the remainder of a hot summers day WITHOUT A BLUSTERY BLOODY WIND to ruin it!

The township was also a wonderful place to visit. A real slice of rural New Zealand to savour. As you enter the town you pass a gravel boat ramp upon which sit about 50 old fishing boats, all of them hooked to a small bulldozer. It's a real colourful sight. Lots of small decorated bulldozers, each named with as much affection as the boats they pull. My favourite was 'Kermit'.

We headed back to Wellington at about 3:45pm... but not without one last stop to photograph this immaculate little church in the middle of nowhere. It's the sort of church you'd expect to find in a painting by Rita Angus or Grahame Sydney.