Castlepoint

 

Over the Easter break Will and I headed off to the Wairarapa for 3 nights in a bach on Mataikona Road, close to Castlepoint. With the way that Easter and ANZAC day fell this year, Will only needed to take 2 days leave in order to get 10 days off. Probably the best return he'll ever get!

 



 

The bach was a very cute little place that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere (probably because it was!). There were a few holiday homes scattered on one side of the road, then the ocean on the other side. It was lovely waking up to the view below from our bedroom. We had arrived in the dark the previous night which made it even more exciting when we woke up!

 

 

Neither of us had been to Castlepoint before, but we were very impressed. It's a fantastic place to get away from it all for a few days, and so accessible from Wellington. I do love a good lighthouse, so I was in my element...

 

 

It is certainly scenic in this neck of the woods! Will and I went for a nice long walk up the hill you can see in the background below.

 

 

NZ does 'crazy boardwalk' rather well... The fine specimen below is on the other side of the lighthouse and lets you explore the rocks (and in Will's case, get envious at the fisherman pulling up loads of gurnard) on the way back to the beach. 

 

We enjoyed the walk up Castle Rock which is the hill I mentioned earlier. Again, there were lots of stops for photos along the way.

 

This pic below might just be the start of Will's modelling career! It is nice because you can see a lot of his dad in his face in this photo, maybe it is just the mischievous glint in his eyes...

 

 

The view from the top was stunning. You could see miles out to see in all directions. We were so lucky with the weather, it was a stunning day. This was made all the sweeter by the fact that the original forecast for our time away was atrocious!

 



 

Here's the obligatory selfie from the top of the hill. As you can tell from our rather wild hair it was pretty windy up the top!

 

A few more pics once we got back down to sea level.

 

Back at the bach that night I cooked a nice steak dinner, washed down with a lovely bottle of red. Our evening entertainment was a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad (we have just finished season 2) before resuming our customary holiday cards battle of 2-handed 500 (where unfortunately Will ended up on top...)

 

 

The next morning was nice and chilled, just hanging out at the bach. In the afternoon we returned to Castlepoint and Will got in a couple of hours fishing. He managed to get 3 smallish Kahawai which we enjoyed as part of our dinner that night. I know it is such a fisherman's cliche, but he really did have the 'big one that got away'. Basically, he landed a decent sized Kahawai but it got snagged on the reef that you can just make out at the bottom of the rocks as he was pulling it up. There is a path where you can get down to the reef, but I wouldn't let him. Rogue waves sometimes break over the reef and a lot of fishermen have got in trouble. There have been several fatalities. The pic below from the Herald last December shows just what it can be like! I think Will's safety is worth a lot more than a big fish and a bit of lost fishing tackle...





 

We left as the sun started to go down and got a couple of photos in the nice soft evening light.

 

 The next morning it was back to Wellington, via a bit of retail therapy at the Lower Hutt Westfield. It was a lovely few days away and I'm sure we'll be returning to Castlepoint at some stage in the future.