The pinnacles of Putangirua, New Zealand - A Hidden World on Earth

Last summer, when I saw a photo on a Facebook group sharing about this place, I immediately told my partner: “We have to go. I have never seen something like this in New Zealand. Let’s go and visit”. So we organized with some of our friends a short trip over the weekend.

As you can see in the picture above, the Putangirua Pinnacles are made of high, eroding slabs of rock called Kupe's Sail. (Src)

Pinnacles or hoodoos were formed over the last 120,000 years, as heavy rain gradually eroded ancient gravel deposits, resulting in breathtaking individual pinnacles. (Src)

The soaring, pointing cliffs of the stony riverbed stretch up to the sky like they're almost unreal. Words can’t be enough to explain the strange beauty of this place. At that moment, I thought that I entered a hidden world on Earth.

When I touched the rocks, I kept telling myself: “How wonderful is this. These majestic rocks were formed over the past 120,00 years. Oh WOW” and I imagined how they were made layers by layers in many years like in documentaries about natural history that I watched with my partner.

This landscape was part of the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, where Aragorn entered the path of Dimholt to recruit the undead army that turned the table upside down in the Battle of Gondor. That’s why the place was packed with visitors and many camped in the fields adjacent to the route.

If you have a chance to visit this place, remember to do the walk early in the morning as it is the best for the effect of the early sunshine coming through rock and avoiding the heat of the day. However, as we headed from Wellington, it took us around 2 hours to drive there. We arrived at around 11 AM and we can feel the very strong and unpleasant heat all around. There is not much shadow on the way.

We packed our picnic boxes so we could enjoy the view while having lunch. However, we couldn’t find any flat place, sheltered from the unforgiving sun. I know, what were we thinking? I should have seen that from the photos online. However, we managed to have a quick lunch and continue to explore the place.