Ngawi Beach

Having spent the early part of the day climbing up the 253 steps to Cape Palliser Lighthouse, I couldn’t help but spare a thought for the early lighthouse keepers at the Cape. When the lighthouse was open in 1897, not only did they have to scramble up a muddy, 58 metre-high cliff to get to the lighthouse, but they had to manually haul large drums of oil and kerosene up as well. This lunacy continued for the first 15 years of operation at Cape Palliser until someone had the genius idea of putting in a set of steps! So, having explored the famous lighthouse and the nearby fishing villages, avoiding washed out sections of road, I stopped and went for a walk along the beach at Ngawi. 

It was then that I noticed an extremely large and ominously dark wall of weather approaching from the south. Earlier in the day, I read that snow was forecast to fall in the Wairarapa area however that was something I’d chosen to ignore. I’d simply assumed it wouldn’t happen. After all, how often do you really believe snow will fall when it’s forecast. Now, late in the afternoon it seemed that snow was on its way.