July 28 Weekend Trip

Here are some pictures of the second time Josh got a cold in New Zealand. I came home from work one afternoon to find him conked out on the love seat...so uncomfortable to try to sleep on so I knew he had to really be out of it. I don't usually make dinners as Josh is better at it but since he was sick I did make him some chicken soup and a sandwich. Two days later, I caught Josh's cold :( and still have a runny nose!

On Saturday, July 28 Josh and I decided to drive down to Cape Palliser which is the southernmost point of the North Island...I've even read that it is further south than Nelson on the South Island. The drive from Palmerston North is around 2 hours one way. We left Palmerston North where it was gray and raining and as we reached the southern coast, the sun came out and we had great views. We could even see the snow capped mountain peaks on the South Island across the Cook Straight. AWESOME!

As you near Cape Palliser, you come into a small town where they push boats into the sea by using bulldozers. Various bulldozers in a variety of colors line the road. I liked the pink one.

As we continued down the road, we saw a sign that said "Temporary Bridge" except the bridge wasn't yet completed and we needed to get to the other side to visit the lighthouse and seal colony. There was another car with three women trying to decide if they should cross over the large stream to reach the other side.

I was confident we could make it (after watching another vehicle cross to our side from the opposite direction). One of the women said she would wait to see what happened to us before they crossed.

Well, Josh and I gunned the gas and splashed water up underneath the hood...it wasn't long before the hood was smoking and the car died! At least the car died when it was out of the stream. The women ran over to help us push the car out of the road and one ran back to her car to get the jumper cables. Josh said the car just needed to drive out but in the 10 minutes we were sitting there several cars pulled over to ask how we were which was really nice.

We didn't need the jumper cables and the car did restart...now we would just have to be more careful about spashing water when we drove out of here. We asked if the women wanted a ride with us to the lighthouse to leave their car behind but they said they'd give it a go on their own (their car wasn't as much as a low rider as our car).

They made it safely across the stream and we were on our way to the lighthouse. It was such a nice day and the moon was rising as the sun was setting. We climbed the 258 steps to the top of the lighthouse. The wind was blowing cold and fierce at the top so we took a couple of pictures (I love seeing how the mountains rise up so close to the sea...I thought that might be how Hawaii looks). Then, Josh and I returned to the car to drive to the seal colony.

The seal colony was amazing. We were able to see so many seals and we got so close to them. Josh accidentally sneaked up on some seals and they growled at him! As the sun set, we started making our way back to Palmerston North. It was a great day trip. If the weather is good when we pick up Josh's parents in Wellington this Thursday, we'll drive them out to Cape Palliser so they can view the seals...oh yeah, we did make it safely back across the stream when we returned home!