Kaitoke Regional Park

A few weekends ago, J and I went out to Kaitoke Regional Park with some friends of his from work. It's about an hour from our house, in the country outside Wellington.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera on this excursion, so you'll have to put up with pictures taken on my phone, which is pretty decent for a phone, but can't compare to an actual camera.

We met our friends down by this lovely little river, dressed for swimming. However, it only required "swimming" up to my ankles for me to be completely convinced that wearing my swimsuit had been unnecessary. The water was crystal clear and ice cold, and the few people brave enough to swim must be a different breed of human than I am. Fortunately, the rest of our party felt the same way, so we elected to go for a hike instead.

Kaitoke was apparently one of the places where they shot scenes of Rivendell in Lord of the Rings, and you will be pleased to know that this particular tree was apparently in the movie.

As was this arch, which they left when they were finished filming.

J and I are reasonably elvish, we decided.

As is true in many parks in NZ, there were lovely paths through native bush.

We stopped on a bridge and watched the crazy people braving the cold.

The amazing cliff for jumping was the only thing that actually tempted me toward the water, but I still wasn't willing to be that cold. I did have a very fun time taking action shots, and got fairly good at catching the jumper in mid air.

See? Pretty paths.

J loved this particular landscape, because it looked just like a scene from one of his video games. I wouldn't be surprised if NZ hadn't inspired many picturesque landscapes in fantasy worlds.

I appreciated that our hike took us over several bridges, because I love looking down off high bridges at scenes like this.

So, no swimming, but a lovely exploration of a new park, to which we will definitely return.