See the Seals, a NEW Adventure Ride.

Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand and the countries second largest city.  We visited here last year, so I wanted to do something different this year.  Darrell went to Zealandia, a nature preserve which I visited last year.  For a description of the place, click on the title above.  This will take you to the actual "blogspot."  On the right side you will find a listing of posted blogs.  Click on 2018, then February, then "Zealandia."  This should bring you to the blog I wrote last year.

My tour was listed as an hour drive out to to Tongue Point, to see the seals and an hour drive back to Wellington.  We did that, but the description failed to mention the fact that the hour drive would be on the most winding roads I have ever seen as we crossed the mountains.










Before we left town we traveled up at least 15 switchbacks.  Did  I mention that I was riding in the back of a Range Rover type vehicle with 6 other people on bench seats facing inward?  Wellington is built on the side of a mountain.  The driver/guide merrily pointed out sights on both sides of the road as we ascended into the clouds.  We were constantly trying to see through the people facing us to catch the sights.  There is one wind turbine at the top of the mountain, but all we could see was the base.  When we got out into the country, the road surface deteriorated slightly so we all bounced around a bit.  However, the curves certainly did not go away.

We saw a lot more than seals.  Sheep, goats and Black Angus cattle roam the hills. Sometimes they even roam the road, but were willing to let us pass.

These goats were more interested in eating than posing.

The shaggy cattle tried, successfully, to hide.

These sheep molt, leaving patches of hair everywhere, so they are not raised for wool, but they make delicious meals.














New Zealand is famous for producing deer meat (venison) from red deer.  The farm where we stopped had both red deer and another smaller breed.  Some of the stags have quite impressive antlers.















At the top of the mountain the wind picked up as it usually does in the area.  There are several large wind farms providing a lot of the energy for the north island, but energy is still imported from the hydro and geothermal sources on the south island.

Although it was still cloudy, we could see the beach where we were headed far below us.  Oops, more switchbacks!

That's the shore of the South Island across the strait.

The Cook Strait separating the North and South islands of New Zealand is usually quite rough causing a lot of shipwrecks.  The tide was low when we were there, but even then the waves were breaking on the beach with considerable force.


The ride on the beach could only be described as the ultimate adventure ride.  We were the last in a convoy of 4 trucks so we could see how they bounced over rocks and slid in the loose gravel, but that did not really prepare us for the experience.  We were in 4 wheel drive with an excellent driver, or we would never have made it.  Fortunately New Zealand law requires seat belt usage and the truck was equipped with straps to help keep us in place.  This is one time I was happy to be short enough -- tall people hit the ceiling.

When we got to the rocky part of the beach seals were everywhere, snoozing on rocks or the gravelly beach.  Most of them were sleeping and paid no attention to us.  We were warned to keep our distance.  Seals do not like to be disturbed, they can move faster than you would expect and they have sharp teeth.  One woman got a bit too close, so the seal looked up, bared its teeth and snarled.  She retreated quickly.

This was the only active fellow we saw.  He had an itch and scratched it with his hind flipper.  The females and pups have not yet returned from the breeding grounds in the south.

The famous leaning lighthouse.