Helicopter Tour of Kapiti Island

My Christmas present from J was a special package deal: a helicopter tour of Kapiti Island, followed by beer and cheese tasting at Tuatara, a local brewery whose beer is everywhere in NZ now. We scheduled it for the height of summer (yesterday) in the hopes of good weather, and it worked out perfectly.

We took the train out to Paraparaumu, which is on the Kapiti Coast. The Kapiti Coast is north of Wellington, following the west coast up towards Whanganui, and it is a stunning stretch of seascapes that I always admire when I drive that way. You can see Kapiti Island from the highway (which you can see in this picture I took from the train) and every time we go by I reassert my desire to go there someday. Who knew I'd be flying over it?

This is the helicopter we went in. It's bigger than the one on our Coromandel Flight, and we sat up in front while another family on the tour sat in back. 

Lifejackets have done a lot of slimming down from the big orange ones I remember as a kid. These are much more comfortable as well.

This is the view down the Kapiti Coast (looking towards Wellington) as we headed out to sea.

And looking towards the island, which is 10km long and 2km wide. It is a nature reserve, and has been completely cleared of all invasive species, making it an ideal and unique place for native birds and plants to thrive. I am very interested in doing a hike or tour of it someday, because it has thriving populations of a long list of native birds, including some that are extinct on the mainland. How amazing!

We were very lucky to go on a day with no fog, cloud, or mist, because we could see everything so clearly and the colours in the water were at their best.

The island is beautiful, with so many interesting shapes and angles. I think this is my favourite viewpoint.

The colours in the water are mesmerizing.

This is part of the coast on the far side, which of course we'd never seen before.

And here's a more complete view of it. I never would have guessed that the other side has such steep cliffs - completely different than the gradual slopes on the side towards the mainland.

It's funny to look back across at the North Island, which even from just a few kilometers away looks like a lush little island. Which I suppose it is, in the grand scheme of things.

From just above the cliffs, the stunning beach and colours of the water remind me of Rotorua.

And then just a few seconds' flight away is this rugged coastline, stunning in such a different way.

We learned that Kapiti Island was very important during the height of the whale trade, and at that point about 2000 people lived there! No wonder there was some work involved in getting it back to pest and predator free! See those two islands next to it? Even they were populated, and the far right one had a store on it.

They're beautiful little islands. The top one is Motungarara, and the bottom one is Tahoramaurea. I'm pretty sure our pilot said they are privately owned. Imagine owning a place like that!

A Māori chief named Te Rauparaha controlled a large empire from Kapiti Island from the 1830s to the 1860s. His domain included the southern part of the North Island and the northern part of the South Island.

As we headed back to Paraparaumu, we saw an enormous pod of pilot whales (or dolphins, depending on who you ask). There were hundreds of them, and they were jumping and diving and splashing, and it was amazing! Not something that a picture would capture, so I didn't try. Don't go looking in the pictures for them, as they're not there.

Next, they dropped us off at Tuatara Brewery. Tuatara beer is absolutely everywhere in NZ, and it never crossed my mind that they actually started out as a little Kapiti Coast brewery, and that we were going to their home base. What a nice surprise!

If you'd like to learn more about Tuatara, please click here.

We each got a beautiful platter of beers and cheeses, matched to compliment each other. There were also crackers made from the mash left over after making beer, which were quite delicious. I am not a fan of beer, but it was fun to taste the differences and I learned that I prefer the ones with citrus flavours. And the cheeses were very impressive!

Tuatara is J's second favourite NZ brewery (after Boneface), and he treated himself to his favourite beer to wash down the sample ones. Kiwis tend to like their beer with lots of hops, and J prefers the less hoppy varieties, so he has to be choosy with his selections.

After lunch we strolled around Paraparaumu for a while, which was nice. It was mostly walking through the town (to bike stores to test out electric bikes for J, which is exciting as well), and then randomly, right off a big road, was this view! What a delightful accident! It doesn't appear to be somewhere you can walk through, but how beautiful!

So that's how we spent the day yesterday. It was utterly delightful, and I am so thankful to the weather for being cooperative, and of course to J for planning such a charming day out!