After driving from Wellington to Martinborough on Friday night we woke up on Saturday morning ready to explore. After a quick stop in town for breakfast, we made our way out to the east coast to visit Castlepoint.
The coastline in this area varies greatly from sandy beaches and sheltered lagoons to rocky limestone outcrops full of fossils. We decided to explore the rocky promontory by the lighthouse first and made our way across the beach to the base of the rocks.
Despite the area being named by Captain Cook in 1770, there has only been a lighthouse in this area since 1913. The lighthouse was built with the intention of assisting ships to make landfall on passage from Panama to Wellington and was one of the last attended stations to be built in New Zealand. The light was fully automated in 1988 and the lighthouse keeper withdrawn.
Traditionally this whole area was known as Rangiwhakaoma “the skies that race” which refers to the fast moving clouds when it is windy. This name felt very fitting as the weather changed so rapidly in just the short time we were there.
We followed the track up past the lighthouse and over the rocky platforms that surround the lighthouse. We made our way down to the rocky outer wall of the reef that formed the lagoon for lunch. Finding a sheltered spot for lunch we sat on the rocks and watched the fishermen and the waves crashing into the lagoon.
After lunch we continued along the beach, even in the sheltered lagoon there were just enough waves for a group of surfers to be out on the water. We got to the far end of the cove and then took the steep track up the hill at the end of the bay.
As we followed the ridge back around to Castlepoint we had great views out across Deliverance Cove. The heavy clouds from earlier had cleared out and the afternoon sunshine brought out every shade of blue in the water of the lagoon.
With the tide rising quickly, we left Castlepoint and made our way back inland hoping to explore some of the forest parks in the Rimutaka Ranges that stretch down the central part of the lower North Island in this area.