New Zealand – The Dimholt Road

OMG! What a day! We were up really early, a bit earlier than intended but we set off south towards Cape Palliser. Its a 5 hour drive and it took us passed Tongiriru but the Volcanos were shrouded in cloud. The landscape here is Moorland and very isolated. For miles and miles there is just heathland (but the plants are very different to ours).
The plan was to get to a certain point and make the decision whether to go to the Putangirua Pinnacles where the Dimholt Road sequence for LOTR was filmed or to turn directly towards Wellington.
The pinnacles are a striking geological feature where the rocks have been eroded by water and wind to produce fluted pillars a couple of hundred meters high.
I knew there was a walk there but, I had no idea how long it would be or how strenuous. The weather was to be the deciding factor.
It was raining on and off but, we decided to go for it and we arrived at about 1 PM, put our rain gear on and waterproofed our packs.

Now Lee has given me permission to tell you this; as a child and adult he had a great number of operations (over 30 I believe) on his legs due to Osteomyelitis in his left knee as a baby. As a result he has a considerably weaker left leg, half a knee cap and Plantar Fasciitis. So far we’ve done short easy walks and I’ve allowed Lee to dictate the distances and or difficulty.

The pinnacles cannot be viewed from the road, the notices said it was an hour and a half round walk. Lee said he’d give it a go and we set off up the track. So far most trails I have been on have been well marked or proper tracks, today that changed. We were walking up a river bed from the start so the the ground was strewn with rocks and boulders.

First hurdle was a number of small fast moving streams we had to cross. I’m fairly good at this now but for Lee this was a real challenge. It was either a case of throwing boulders into the water to try and make a decent stepping stone or, walking to find where it was shallower. We did this five or six times! A french couple overtook us at about this point.

Another issue was the way markers, these were poles with a small orange tip, easily missed in the scrub and bush. The walk then turns up an incline and this is where I got worried because, I could see water starting to cut into a previously dry area. This meant that the streams were getting bigger and we could be faced with a torrent if we remained there.

I asked Lee how he was doing and explained my concern, we probably had about another 20min walk at our current pace. As frustrating as it was not to reach the pinnacles it was safer to go back.

Now there were two tracks, the way we had come along the river or the ridge track ( I had discounted the latter on the way up because they are often very strenuous). We decided due to the state of the river we would go via the ridge. I knew Lee’s leg was hurting but, he said he was OK and happier to go the ridge route.

The climb was steep and it zig zagged up, on and on. We stopped to rest frequently and not just for Lee. It was a hell of an incline.

We were soaked through by now. I was worried about Lee but, he soldiered on.
Our reward was a spectacular view of the pinnacles from a lookout high up the track.

We carried on up and up till we reached the ridge. It was then a very slow walk down, the path very uneven rough steps, root strewn and pitted. For a long stretch there were sheer or steep drops on either side. This would have been a moderate walk for me so I have an idea how difficult this was for Lee.
We stopped once so he could some take pain killers, then he carried on.
At one point the French man we saw earlier overtook us at quite a pace. We didn’t see his partner and this made us speculate as to what had happened.
The descent seemed endless but finally we made it to the valley and I went to get the car for Lee as it was parked a bit further away. On the way I saw the  French chap and I dredged up the only french I could recall and asked “Où est la femme?” It must have sounded right because he answered with several sentences and indicated she had returned early and I could see her sat in the car. I was somewhat relieved about this.
Lee and I were both exhausted, wet and cold. Nothing that a ham sandwich and the car heater couldn’t fix though.

We headed off towards Wellington and when we reached route 2. The road twists and turns to climb over Rimutaka Hill, Upper Hutt. The views were stunning, natural forests and beautiful rivers. Then suddenly Lee see’s a sign to Rivendell so we took a detour into Kaitoke Regional Park!

There is not much left of the set of course but it was just a bonus on our Lord of the rings adventure.

We arrived in Wellington in torrential rain. Made it up a very steep hill to our Airbnb. We were staying in a tiny old house in someones garden! Lee was underwhelmed by it but, I rather liked it, it reminded me of home. Really we were both too exhausted to think about it much.