Back at the end of February, while the weather was still stunning, I took the kids for a long field trip up into the Wairarapa.  I’ve rather taken to heading up State Highway 2 this year, and with good cause.  The countryside is beautiful, even if exceedingly brown due to this year’s drought, and there are some very picturesque spots along the coast to visit if you make the effort.  Cape Palliser being one of those areas.  Castlepoint being another.

It seems like all my trips lately require a lighthouse at the end. And yes, this trip was no different so expect a few gratuitous photographs of it throughout this post.  Starting with this one from the beachfront as you enter Castlepoint…

Rather nice, isn’t it, up there on it’s own?

This was my first visit to Castlepoint and with the help of the stunningly gorgeous day, I was completely blown away by the beauty of the place.  The sand, the dunes, the outcrops and the fantastic area that is Deliverance Cove.  I kid you not, I walked around open mouthed and gob-smacked like some foreign tourist seeing for the first time that the scenery in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit really isn’t CGI.

So the walk to the lighthouse is ridiculously easy up a long path.  You can go on past the lighthouse and up on to the outcrop, which has a viewing platform built on it.  The views are lovely and the geology of the place exposed and really interesting.  Unfortunately for me, Master Oh decided he wanted to panic on the walk down the other side and then sulked after being carried down so he doesn’t appear in any photographs up on the headland.  But the lighthouse, and Miss Oh Waily do.

Yep, she’s a nice lighthouse and it was a brilliant blue sky. And Miss Oh was happy to pose as we walked back up from the seaward side of the promontory.

After making our way down from the lighthouse the kids had some time playing in the dunes and making sandcastles.

See that tiny twig on top of the mound – that’d be the sandcastle’s lighthouse. There’s nothing quite like digging in the sand is there?

Between this section below the lighthouse and Deliverance Cove there was a rather large parking area for seagoing vessels. Here is an industrial sized boat trailer if there ever was one.

Once you walk (or drive, the sand is hard enough to do this) past the parking lot, you come to the most beautiful little inlet of water and the sheltered harbour area of Deliverance Cove. And here are the kids making their way down to the inlet area.

Which looked like this when you got up close. Yes, a vibrant green through blue.

And could not be overlooked for a good wading.

It was so beautiful that we had to go back, and we have. I arranged to take the whole family back on the first nice weekend after Mr Oh Waily returned home from his gallivanting around Europe. I’ll show and tell you about that day trip a little later, as we didn’t (gasp) visit the lighthouse but explored another part of Deliverance Cove instead.

For me the day just reinforced what an amazing and beautiful country we are so darned lucky to live in. I hope our family can keep on enjoying such trips and seeing such wonderful places.

What about you? Have you been anywhere lately that’s blown your socks off? I’d love to know about it, so I can put it in my Bucket List. Happy travels everyone.