Christmas 2015 road trip, day 4/5: Cape Palliser

Our final destination for this road trip was Cape Palliser at the very bottom of the North Island. It turned out to be such an amazing place, peaceful, tranquil, rich in kaimoana and inhabited by friendly as people that we ended up staying 2 whole days. It was quite an adventure, though. The first morning we almost ran out of gas realizing the next gas station was 60km back inland - we only JUST made it there!

After returning to the cape and enjoying a late breakfast we then had issues getting the back window back up in the truck - no journeying on unless that got fixed. Otherwise we'd be breathing in diesel fumes AND there would be no way for us to safely leave the truck anywhere. What to do?

We found help in the little fishing village Ngawi which had been featured in several TV series such as Hunger for the Wild and Coasters. Talking to a few locals getting in their catch of the day (everybody in Ngawi basically lives of commercial crayfishing) we were told to see Rob Miles, also known as MacGyver or Mr. Fix-It (he, too, was featured on TV a couple of years ago!!!). And we weren't disappointed. Within a few hours Rob had fixed the truck with a bit of DIY and a strong engineering background. THANK YOU ROB!!! You're a star =D

Early afternoon we finally managed to get back on the road and explore the Cape. It's such a beautiful place - home to Cape Palliser lighthouse (252 steep as stairs!) and one of New Zealand's largest fur seal colonies. They were everywhere! I even spotted what I interpreted as a seal daycare centre *lol* All the pups were playing side by side in a large rock pool while a massive male and another female were keeping a close eye on them. I could have watched them for hours...

overlooking the home of hundreds of fur seals	252 steps to the top!
pups playing in the rock pools	one of many bulldozers used by the Ngawi people to launch their crayfish boats
WE MADE IT!	overlooking the Cape
watching the sunset after an exhausting day	doing laundry the old-fashioned way ;-)
another bulldozer pulling in a massive crayboat

The second day we ran into some more locals who recommended a drive (only with a 4WD vehicle!) and hike to a waterfall on private Maori land. Lucky the truck was fixed, so after Matt went diving to get us some more paua (they are massive down here!!!) we took off on another offroad adventure. It was quite a drive and we could understand why you shouldn't attempt this in a normal vehicle. Both of us were actually surprised the Surf didn't break down along the way!!! Here are some more impressions of today's adventure...