Putangirua Pinnacles, New Zealand

One of our many adventures while living in Wellington, New Zealand was traveling to the Putangirua Pinnacles where part of Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. 

My boyfriend and I hired a car and drove through the Wairarapa, which seems to have it’s own weather system. Low cloud and mist cover the winding roads surrounded by trees, then all of a sudden it opens out into the sun filled openness of the Wairarapa. It’s an amazing drive, although sometimes feels a little unsafe, especially if I’m the one driving. 

This continued on to a coastal drive, finally reaching the car park where the trail began. There had been quite a bit of heavy rain, and the trail cross the river multiple times, which was quite scary. We spent a long time trying to find a place to cross that didn’t feel like we were leaping over a rapid. We succeeded, continued along the ‘path’ and then up along an empty river bed that led directly into the pinnacles.

They were giant rock formations, a little bit daunting walking right underneath them but extremely beautiful. They were formed over the past 120,000 years by heavy rain that has eventually eroded an ancient gravel deposit , eventually forming spectacular individual pinnacles or ‘hoodoos’.

It’s definitely worth a visit, but beware, you will have to jump across the river a few times to get there!