Turakirae Head Scientific Reserve

For Mother's Day we took a seal colony adventure.  The NZ Department of Conservation maintains several beachs as preserved Fur Seal colonies.  These are advertised extensively in tour guide website, but it took a bit of work to actually find the location myself and skip the $70 per person fees.  Very few areas of NZ are actually "restricted" you just have to be willing to walk to them.  So after a little work I found the Turakirae Head Scientific Reserve.

The Turakirae Head refers to the head of the Turakirae river as it exits to the South Pacific.  It is located on the East side of the Wellington bay (the side we live on).  There is a low, but impressive range of mountains on the East side of the Hutt Valley (we live in Lower Hutt).  Over that range is a another township called Wainumata.  The route to Turakirae tooks us over that range and straight South to the river head in about 30 minutes.  I finally saw my first full-on NZ sheep farm on this drive.  We also saw several miniature ponies as well as horses, cows, llamas and goats.  At a few bends with tall pines you would have thought we were right in the middle of Colorado before it filled in with Denoulder Springs... It was a pretty drive.

Most NZ nature reserves start the same way... an unmarked dead-end road.  There are few "visitor centers", no rangers, and usually not even a parking lot.  Turakirae was no exception.  We parked at the end of the paved road and walked the very rough gravel road, over the river (via a narrow concrete bridge) and to the fenced reserve.

The gate to get in was primarily designed to keep out sheep (which were on the gravel road, by the way).  I was bumping my gut and my butt to squeeze through--of course I was wearing a backpack.  No visitor center means, no water and no food.  So we have learned to always carry bottles of water and some One Square Meal bars.  And since the boy guzzles water and backwashes... he gets his own.  On any given hike, I am carrying more fluid than a camel.  These pictures (all posted in my NZ Nature photo section) do not do the reserve justice.  This is the real ocean on the South Coast.  Nothing is slowing down the waves from Antarctica.  Here is the opening view.  The river charges out of the valley head long in to the surf.  The effects are dramatic.  It was very windy--probably 30 or 40 mph sustained.  We walked a good ways out toward the bend where the seal colony is supposed to be, but we decided to save it for a better day.  But we did take a few pictures of the family.  Here's Gabe and here's Amy.  The beach did have a lot of seaweed and driftwood, but virtually no shells.  Gabe found only one, but it was a doozy.

The reserve was virtually abandoned.  Miles of the coast were totally abandoned.  While only about 5 miles from the nearest town, it felt like you were alone on the shore.  It was amazing, open and beautiful.  The drama of the high hills, crashing waves, breath-taking wind combined to overwhelm your sense with unquestionable power of the elements.  I can't wait to go back again and go all the way around the bend.  Then I bet I get you some pictures of seals.  Overall, it was a great, easy adventure.