Te Mata Peak

not far from Elephant Hill Estate & Winery lies Te Mata Peak (i always thought it was called tomato peak until a few years ago!), towering 400 meters above sea level.
OK, well not towering...

aparently it's a great place for cross-country BMX biking, or a good place for hiking, but my city-boy instincts kicked in and i drove up to the top of the peak.

at the top you're rewarded with breathtaking views looking out over east coast towards the Pacific Ocean, the Heretunga Plains and the Tuki Tuki River below. the landscape could have been taken right out of The Lord Of The Rings!

i used to come up here when i was a kid to watch hand-gliders take-off.
then there were no "take-off ramps" back then, it was just run-&-fly, but today a few have been erected and fenced off for the publics safety as you can see below (bottom left pic).



but it's not only the views at the top which are stunning.
the views at the base of Te Mata Peak are just as amazing.



so after lazing in the afternoon sun (the wines at the winery before helped) i then went in search of the "redwood forest" which i also remember from childhood.

just a 20 minute stroll through New Zealand's natural bush and there they were standing tall and proud, the redwoods. but these ones are only babes, the huge redwoods i was hoping to see were another 20 minutes walk away through the valley. unfortunatly time wasn't on my side so i had to make do with the smaller ones. maybe next time im back down-under...