Monday, January 28 Wellington to Putangirua Pinnacles

    Talking to the campground manager about our saggy rear end (on the van, not our persons), he recommended that we talk to his mechanic just down the road. So Diana and I drove to the shop at around 8 am to see what the guy had to say about our predicament. He told us to give him an hour to give it a good look-over. We walked into town so Diana could go thrift shopping for new pants, then returned to hear the news that the springs were indeed shot, and that whoever had replaced the shocks had put in replacements that were too short. So we'd have to pay for a new set of those too. Plus, the sway bar bushings were shot. And, to cap it off, he wouldn't be able to get the parts until Wednesday, which meant we couldn't catch a ferry to the South Island until Thursday, putting us a few days behind schedule.

     But they don't call it vacation for nothing. We took a look at the map and our guide books and decided to make an unscheduled side trip to Cape Palliser for the next couple days, a diversion that proved to be quite worthwhile.

     After driving over the mountain range east of Wellington we got into sheep and sea country.

I wonder if  the lamb tastes naturally salty

Kristy as sheeparrazi

We saw a lot of interesting road signs in Australia,
but it's the first time we've ever seen a sign like this

          We got to the Department of Conservation campground at the Putangirua Pinnacles Scenic Preserve, set up camp, then hiked up to the weird badlands where some scenes from the third Lord of the Rings movie were shot.

Hiking up to the pinnacles

The beginning of the trail where Aragorn summoned
 the Army of the Dead ...

... onward ...

... past hidden side alleys ...

.... to a dark and scary place. 

Interesting rock formations

Diana and I returned by the high road, the kids followed the gravel streambed

NZ has lots of giant ferns

       After supping on quesadillas that the kids made and visiting with a Scottish guy traveling the country and looking for work in NZ, we walked out to the beach to look at the sunset. It ended up being a stone throwing extravaganza (must be the hobbit in us).

What exactly were we supposed to do for this self portrait?

Dan shows Kelly the proper technique

Aha, perfect form!