Tuesday 1st November
We had planned to get up fairly early but evidently we'd missed sleeping in a tent so much we slept through the alarm and couldn't be bothered to move when we finally came too. We were packed and out of the campsite by 10 though and started the fairly long drive north to Gisborne. As we passed through Napier, a road sign stated it was 214 kilometres, so it would probably take us around 3 hours. Highway 2 north of Napier was pretty quiet and just ploughed through fields and forest with no sign of abating. During the 2 hours to the town of Wairoa the road map said we'd passed about 4 towns but they'd hardly been noticeable through the car windows. We stopped for a pick me up coffee in Wairoa. Despite both having a good night sleep, we both felt rather tired. Having gone cold turkey from morning tea I was hungry, so splashed out on a pie too to fill myself up. The bakery we went to had a good write up in Lonely Planet but we didn't think much of the service. We were talked to as if we were morons and when we received our “long black” it turned out to be a double espresso. We'd had long blacks before and they had just been like a normal black coffee. Clearly they aren't conventional in Wairoa. We got back to the car, with me making short work of the pie and us both sipping our espressos on the drive out to the Mahia peninsula. We'd been told that Mahia beach is a very nice place, so we thought we'd check it out. We missed the turning for the beach but carried on around the peninsula a little bit before pulling over and having a sandwich whilst sat on some rocks overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We returned to the car after the very brief picnic and drive back to Mahia beach. As beaches go, it looked very nice. We didn't fancy going for a dip just yet though. The spring in New Zealand seems to have been particularly cold, so we didn't dare brave the sea water (although it can't have been any colder than the river we jumped in back in the forest!). We went for a short walk along the sand, testing the water with a hand just to be sure (it was cold) and then returned to the car and finished the drive north to the town of Gisborne. We found our campsite pretty easily, checked in, were appalled by the customer service (we were starting to think it's an east coast thing) and set the tent up. By this time it was half 4, so we popped out to the supermarket to pick dinner up and then read until dinner time. Again, compared to the previous 2 weeks it was a wee bit bland but actually our rice, veg, 5 bean mix and passata went down an absolute treat. Providing the weather held out, we were hoping to actually see a bit of the town the following day.
Wednesday 2nd November
We awoke to the patter of raindrops hitting the tent. We didn't rush out of bed, already knowing that we'd have at least one more night in Gisborne. We still had to be up before 10 though, as we had to book the extra night before check out time. This meant we didn't get breakfast until gone 10 and then weren't out on the street until 11. We weren't even up to anything exciting either as we had to head to the library in order to get the previous blog completed and posted. Once that was done, we went for a very short wander round the centre of town and then headed back to the campsite for lunch. We sat and ate lunch whilst watching about 50 neon clad female cyclists head off for a ride around Gisborne. After lunch, we headed out for our own tour around the town, only we were on foot. With the holiday park being right on the beach, we followed a promenade walk round, past the port and to the mouth of the Turanganui River. Along the coastal walk were 2 statues that we stopped to have a look at. The first was of Captain Cook’s cabin boy, “Young Nick” who had been the first to spot New Zealand when they were sailing towards it on Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour. The second statue was of Captain Cook himself, with a story underneath him explaining how the bay in which Gisborne stands got its name. Poverty Bay was named because when the crew of the Endeavour and the local Maori met, traditional challenges were misunderstood and the Maori were killed. The ship sailed with no food or water. From the statues we carried on up the river, passed a horde of the neon cyclists we'd watched depart earlier, eventually turning in to the town centre and visiting a souvenir shop we'd seen earlier in the day. With a pin badge safely in hand, we nipped to the supermarket and headed back to the campsite. We dropped off our provisions and went back out for yet another walk. We went long the beach in the opposite direction we'd gone on our previous jaunt. The prom was a boardwalk and had great views across Poverty Bay to the cliffs of “young Nick’s head”. We passed 2 more gaggles of neon cyclists on this walk, both heading in the direction of the campsite. After a while, we decided to turn back and relax for the rest of the day. We had a similar dinner to the one we'd had the night before but replaced the rice with pasta and omitted the beans. It still filled a hole, so we were pretty content.
Thursday 3rd November
We awoke to a beautiful day in Gisborne and across Poverty Bay. Whilst I slept, Charlotte was up and about getting some washing done so it would dry in the balmy weather. After breakfast, we extended our stay for one more night and then set out for the day. We walked along the prom once more, passing the 2 statues we'd visited the previous day and then crossed the Turanganui River, heading towards Kaiti Hill. We clearly looked like we were struggling, as when we doubled back on ourselves in a residential area a lady across the road shouted “are you looking for Kaiti Hill?”. We yelled back that we were and she kindly pointed us in the right direction. We'd already passed the road we'd needed to walk up but in our defence, there wasn't a sign that told us where to go. We walked up a steep road that wound up to the top of Kaiti Hill. Along the way, we made a couple of stops at some lookouts. The first was just a seat that looked out across Gisborne city, the port and Poverty Bay. As it was such a beautiful day, the town looked lovely soaking up the late spring sunshine. From our vantage point, we could just about make out our tent amongst the trees of the campsite. We carried on up the road to another lookout, which was much the same as the previous one, except it had another statue of Captain Cook. There was a plaque with the same story of how Poverty Bay got its name on the floor just in front of his statue. From there, we walked the short distance to the summit of the hill, where we could see right across the bay and out into the vast Pacific Ocean. We'd lost Gisborne down behind some trees, but we could still here banging and engines from the port. Whilst we were at the top an elderly lady engaged us in conversation and asked us where we were from. We told her where and about where we'd been in New Zealand and was pleased we'd been having such a good time in her country. We left her and her husband there and started back off down the hill. They passed us in their car in the way down and she stuck her head out of the window and said “hope to see you in Northland sometime!”. We could only smile and wave, we didn't even know what town they were from, we didn't even have a chance to shout back that they had left the boot of their car open before they'd disappeared round the next corner. We strolled back in to Gisborne, making some time out of the sun to explore an independent book shop. We came out empty handed thanks to the fact that books (amongst almost everything else) are incredibly expensive in the country. On the back they have the British price, which is generally around £7.99. Using the old conversion rate which was £1 to $2 (it would actually be better than that now) that should make the book $16. Instead, they are retailing their new books for more than $30 each. Even ones that have been out for year were over $20. We thought we'd be better off buying them on the Internet for a fraction of the price. We walked through town and hunted down the botanic gardens which was on the banks of the river. When we arrived we sat down on a bench with a cold drink and had some lunch that we'd brought along with us. Once we were full, we took in the relatively small botanic gardens. It was more like a park and the highlight was a large greenhouse that contained loads of Cacti. Despite the heat of the greenhouse we had a good look around, admiring the sharp needles of all the plants that were thriving in the heat. After the gardens, we headed back to the campsite and spent a while sitting in the shade and planning our upcoming trip around the East Cape. It was late afternoon by this point, so we came to the conclusion that we'd seen what we wanted to in Gisborne and we could relax for the rest of the day. We did have to nip out for petrol and food but that was pretty boring. We tried something a bit new for dinner. Our stash of potatoes that we'd had for nearly 2 months had started to sprout and turn green, so we binned them and opted for a vegetable and lentil curry. It turned out a lot nicer than we'd anticipated and the pittas we'd picked up to go with it made it even nicer.
Friday 4th November
It was finally time to make an escape from Gisborne and it was a beautiful day to do so. The tent went away bone dry and we were all set to head off when we finished breakfast. The drive north from town was rather spectacular, skirting the Pacific coast before weaving inland across rolling hills. There seemed to be more logging trucks on this stretch of road than any other we'd been on and it's heard not to brace yourself when they hurtle past you at speed. Our first stop was about 40 minutes from Gisborne and was a walk that would take us to Cooks Cove. We parked in a small paddock and set off up a hill. The first part of the walk was through farmland populated by numerous sheep and their humongous lambs that must have been on steroids. Despite the size they all still ran away. After hopping some styles we reached a lookout point that took in the valley below and the cliffs rising out of the Pacific Ocean. From the lookout we descended a steep track interspersed with numerous steps that led down to the valley floor below. With the descent out the way, it was a short trot down the river to the end of the walk and a classic DOC composting toilet. There were a few places of note at the end of the walk that we took in. First was the hole in the wall, which through it we could see the Pacific Ocean and what looked like a Pied Cormorant sunning itself on a rock. Further round was Cooks Cove itself, where Captain Cook and his crew had come ashore after their disappointment of Poverty Bay and met with the local tribes and got on with them like a house on fire. They left with ample food, water and wood for the circumnavigation of New Zealand. As I was sat on a log looking across the cove, I didn't find it hard to imagine a group of heavily bearded men rowing ashore and exploring the area for the first time. As we were heading back to rejoin the track and return to the car, we dodged the scraping leaves of numerous thistles that had evidently been fed the same food as the lambs we'd seen earlier and headed up a small hill to a small monument that commemorated Cook’s landing in the area. We had almost not done it but we were relieved we had when we got to the top and were greeted by a fantastic panoramic view of the area we had just explored. The walk back was as easy it had been coming and it didn't take us the 1 and a half hours the signage had suggested. As we arrived back at the car, the sky was just starting to darken in the ominous way it does when it's about to pour with rain. A little further along the road was the Tolaga Bay Wharf, which is allegedly the longest wharf in all of Australasia. It's also the most expensive, as it had been restored recently, racking up a bill of $5.5 million. We walked the length of its 660 metres and quickly turned back when it started to rain just as we reached the end. When we returned to the car, we rejoined the highway and drove on to another walk. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was still chucking it down. We contemplated over lunch and decided to knock it on the head, as it was only an unremarkable walk through bush. So we drove on to our accommodation for the night in Tokomaru Bay. Stranded in Paradise was the only hostel round the East Coast and even it was tiny. There was only around 10 or so beds and, although we booked a private room, we couldn't lock the door as ones of our doors was a fire exit for the whole hostel. The rain had set in for the day by the time we'd settled in, so we relaxed in the room for the evening as there was nothing to do or see in tiny Tokomaru Bay. We were only really using it as a stop off to break up what would have been a very long drive done in one day. We had a rice and veg stir fry for dinner, which turned out so large it could have fed 10 easily. We still ate it all as we had nowhere to store it and we hate throwing food away.
Saturday 5th November
We aren't quite sure what but something possessed us to set our alarms for 5am in order to get up and watch the sunrise from the decking at the hostel. The hostel was in a prime location to watch it slide above the waters of the Pacific, so we thought we'd best. As we were up, it seemed a good idea to get breakfast, have a coffee and get everything ready to leave after we'd seen the sunrise. The sun started to creep above the clouds on the horizon just as we were eating our toast at the table. We did manage to make it out on to the decking to see the full show though. Thanks to its location on the East coast Gisborne and where we were in Tokomaru Bay is some of the first mainland to see the new days every morning. It didn't take too long for it to emerge fully from behind the clouds and become impossible to look at, so we left it and packed our things in to the car, leaving the hostel behind at just gone half 6 in the morning. Thanks to the early hours the roads were rather quiet, which made the drive north rather easy. We made the distance to the town of Te Araroa in around an hour and then turned off on to East Cape road. It was part sealed/part unsealed and led out to the East Cape lighthouse, which is the most easterly lighthouse in the world. They hadn't made it easy to access though, as we had to climb 796 steps (Charlotte counted them on the way down) up a hill to get to it. When we reached the top it was well worth the effort. The weather was perfect and we could see for miles in every direction, if we squinted hard enough out to see, we could have probably made out the international date line somewhere amongst the waves. We spent around half an hour around the lighthouse, just enjoying the peace and tranquility of the remoteness of the spot. As I said, on our way down, Charlotte counted the steps just to be sure they weren't having us on. We had thought 200 steps down at Cape Palliser had been a lot but 796!! We were amazed that they only took us around 10 minutes each way too. We set off from the East Cape barely halfway through the morning but still had a fair amount of driving to do. If we'd followed the route google maps had given us from our accommodation in Tokomaru Bay to our destination of Ohope Beach, we would have driven back down to Gisborne and cut across land through a gorge and still made good time as it was quicker than carrying on round the East Cape. We just had to visit the lighthouse though, so despite the extra time and petrol, we went the scenic route. We made it back to Te Araroa, it was a 3 and a half hour drive on to Ohope Beach. We only made one stop along the way, in a tiny town we didn't catch the name of, to take a photo of its historic church that was sat right in the rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean. There was so much driving done, that Charlotte's right arm burnt from being in the sun so long. We reached the town of Opotiki around 1pm but didn't stop as it didn't look particularly appealing. From there, it was only a short hop up the road to our campsite at Ohope Beach. As it had been an early start, we were greatful for the rest and spent the remainder of the day relaxing and people watching around the tent. Somehow, we managed to squeeze ourselves into the tiny camp kitchen (for whatever reason, the other 2 kitchens were closed (we reckon they are just being lazy and can't be bothered to clean them every day)) and cook up some quick pasta and beans for dinner. We'd not long had it but with no supermarket nearby, we just did it for ease. We'd enjoyed Gisborne and the East Cape immensely, particularly the remoteness after Gisborne. The only problem was that we didn't feel particularly safe the whole time. It was pretty much exclusively Maori population the whole way round and they never really look at you with any kind of friendliness. Still, we made it round alive and we didn't have long left to explore the remainder of the North Island before we started working over Christmas.
James and Charlotte
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