Keep Left!

Evidence that I really did drive on the left side of the road!
Our entire group when we pulled over to see this view.
So I said that I really do study on study abroad, but we have 3 day weekends...so maybe I lied just a little. Today we took advantage of our Friday off and road tripped to Martinborough and the Putangirua Pinnacles. Fun fact: Kiwis drive on the left side of the road instead of the right so that was a first for me. All of their rental cars actually say keep left on the dashboard because so many foreigners drive in NZ that have never driven on the left before. Adjusting to that change was actually not as hard as I thought it would be and I have to say I felt really adult renting a car for the first time. After leaving the city, we had to drive through the Rimutaka Pass which was a fun curvy mountain road. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves after making it through that without a hitch until we missed our turn (it was one of four turns too). Not only did we miss it, but we missed it by an hour and half because well kilometers and no cell service is hard. On the bright side, we saw some absolutely beautiful scenery of the central part of the North Island. I wish I could've taken some pictures of that, but driving took priority this time. We eventually got turned back around and made it to Martinborough in a very roundabout fashion.

The Putangirua Pinnacles as seen from the lookout.
Martinborough was one the cutest little towns I've ever seen. It was also sunny and a solid 15 degrees warmer than Wellington despite being only an hour away so that was awesome. In Martinborough, we went to Martinborough Brewery (very creatively named). The whole area is known for their beers and wines so I thought this could be fun. I was one of the designated drivers so I didn't taste any beers, but I had a very interesting (and very not American) lime soda. After the brewery, we headed off for the Putangirua Pinnacles (we actually planned to do these first, but driving an hour and a half out of our way kinda messed with that one).

Hiking through the Pinnacles.
The Putangirua Pinnacles are rocks that formed over millions of years and were also used as a filming location for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.When we got to the Pinnacles, we loaded up on sunscreen (major ozone hole over New Zealand...) and got ready to head out. A New Zealand couple there offered to take a picture of all of us 'in case we don't make it back' so there's some local humor for ya. We hiked up to the Pinnacle lookout which gave an incredibly impressive view of the Pinnacles with beautiful blue sky in the
background. To come back down, we walked along a streambed of a long gone river that allowed us to explore around the base of the Pinnacles. These tall, skinny rock formations towered above us while we explored the nooks and crannies of the Pinnacles which was beyond cool. Post-hike we drove directly across the
A beautiful black sand beach off the side of the road.
road to one of New Zealand's many black sand beaches. It's still amazing to me that scenery like that is literally on the side of the road and didn't even cost us extra effort. After relaxing there for a bit, we started our drive back.

Thankfully, our drive back went much better than the first drive of the morning and I got us back to Wellington in the amount of time it actually should have taken without any wrong turns. Exhausted, we all ate some delicious Thai food on Cuba Street and turned in for the night. This was our first successful trip of any kind in New Zealand and even though we made a few mistakes, we always remembered to keep left!

~S

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