Cape Palliser

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Located a few hours from Wellington city, Cape Palliser is the southernmost point in the whole of New Zealand's north island. It's a must-see destination to add to your itinerary. Whilst the road out there may be a little tricky to navigate in parts - various slips, winding roads and narrow bridges require the utmost concentration, the views along the route are more than worth it by themselves. You can even see over to the south island on a clear day. 

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The lighthouse at Cape Palliser stands tall on the clifftop. 253 steps (exactly) will lead you to the top but do be careful, it was ever so blustery. I genuinely thought I was going to get blown off. It was a nightmare trying to navigate a tripod and a remote up there! Not to mention, the platform is fairly close to the lighthouse so it was actually hard to get a pic without a super wide angle lens. Anyway, enough of the complaints. It's 100% a must-do.

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Just as we were heading off in search of our next adventure, we decided to go and stand down on the beach to celebrate being at the southernmost point when we realised the beach was littered, quite literally, with seals. Keeping our distance, we climbed up onto a large rock and observed a family splashing in the rock pools. It was such an amazing day. I'd be a great seal sunbathing on the rocks all day.

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On our way back to the main road, we stopped to climb sail rock and wow. It was totally terrifying with no path to follow, so you're basically playing a game of 'guess where to step without causing a rockslide or triggering 1943429 rocks to fall on your head from above...' needless to say, I caused quite the fuss whilst ascending and descending! Beautiful views again though, as you can imagine. Yay NZ. You did it again.