The staircase
Views over Cook Strait.
Eli Duke from Portland, OR, USA — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eli Duke from Portland, OR, USA — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eli Duke from Portland, OR, USA — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Kristina D.C. Hoeppner from Wellington, New Zealand — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Michal Klajban — CC BY-SA 4.0
Cape Palliser Lighthouse is a red and white striped lighthouse on Cape Palliser / Mātakitaki-a-Kupe, the southernmost point of New Zealand's North Island, in the Wairarapa region. The cape is about 50 km south-east of Wellington but about 100 km by road, and about 46 km from Martinborough in a straight line. The lighthouse was first lit in 1897, became automated in 1986 and flashes twice every 20 seconds. Captain James Cook named the cape in 1770 after his friend Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, and the Māori name refers to the navigator Kupe gazing out to sea from here. It stands on a grassy bluff above a rocky, wave-battered shore, reached by a long wooden staircase of about 250 steps, and the top gives a wide view over Cook Strait and the rugged coast. The cape has a permanent fur seal colony, found in 1991, so keep your distance and never stand between a seal and the sea. On the way you pass the small crayfishing village of Ngawi, where bulldozers push the fishing boats into the sea, and the sail-shaped rock Ngā Rā-a-Kupe.
Views over Cook Strait.
On the rocks near the cape.
Boats launched by bulldozer.
Cape Palliser, Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand
No, it is seen from outside.
About 100 km.