DAY 26 MANAWATU GORGE (Woodville) to CASTLEPOINT

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » East Coast
February 26th 2023

Published: February 27th 2023

Edit Blog Post

letyourspiritrunfree

Our camping spot last night.

Pulling the curtains aside and seeing absolutely clear skies, it was, “Oh beauty”, however, upon setting out after breakfast, a fog occurred from out of nowhere, reducing visibility to 50m or less. We ‘drove-out-of-it’ after about 30kms as we headed to our destination of Castlepoint on the eastern coast of the North Island. It is enough to say that wherever you travel in NZ the countryside is lush and scenic.

Literally minutes after turning-off at Masterton for the coast the saturated and still flooded fields both sides of the road were in evidence. Things were to become worse. The streams had become rivers and the rivers had become raging torrents during the recent cyclone and infrastructure damage was clearly visible. Tall cornfield crops still had water to half of their height, farmhouses with mudlines a third to a halfway up their walls had their furniture out in huge skip bins, trees had been uprooted or snapped in half, the road had slippages and slides of rock or soil or vegetation or forest trees too many to put a number on and worst of all was the huge road washaways of whole lanes that went from 1 to many tens of

Foggy sheep!

metres deep or the road base had simply been washed away into the rivers raging below. A few areas had remained damage free. The 64km drive took us nearly an hour and a half and fortunately there was very little traffic. We have been notified that from tomorrow the road is open from 11am to noon and from 4pm to 5pm. Otherwise it is closed due to roadworks which begin in earnest, hence we will have to leave but not before …

Castlepoint! Wow! It was worth the effort. When we booked in the owner/manager mentioned that they don’t get many ‘foreign tourists’ coming through Castlepoint as it is off-the-beaten-track. The lighthouse on the Point is the dominant feature. We are camped 20 or so metres from the not-so-blue rolling waves. We look forward to hitting the sack tonight with the sound of the sea in the background. We walked for a good few hours, exploring the hideaway little town (reminded us of Augusta in the S-W of WA) making our way to the lighthouse and shores further.

Additional photos below

Photos: 27, Displayed: 23

Number 29 ... has been my favourite number since 1961 (Billy Walker, Swans champ wore it). I wore it too ... however, the effect has not been the same!