Gisborne - Rotorua

17 – 22 March

Thursday:

We leave Napier for a quick detour to Hastings.  It’s a similar size to Napier and also has the art deco architecture, but whereas Napier is a tourist town Hastings is a working town and agricultural hub. 

After a quick look around we start heading along the coast, towards Gisborne.  It’s a slightly longer drive than we’d expected, not helped much by the never-ending roadworks that seem to take place on all New Zealand roads.  On the plus side, I guess their roads are generally in good condition. 

It’s mid-afternoon by the time we arrive, but the delicious weather is doing us proud: it’s still warm enough to head down to the beach for a splash in the waves and lie on the sand.  This is not surprising as Gisborne claims to be the sunniest place in New Zealand (although Nelson claims the same thing?!).

We’re not in the nicest campsite we’ve been in, so we decide to take a stroll into town and see if anything takes our fancy.  It’s a pretty town, set along the banks of 2 (or is it 3?) rivers and the harbour.  We find ourselves with a glass of wine and a beer down by the wharf.  It’s a good spot to be, so we grab some food (kick ass nachos for me, ribs for Nick) then head back.

Friday:

With our campsite right on the beach and another beautiful day, there really is no excuse not to go for a run, so I do.  After a bit of a lazy morning we head out for a stroll through town.  We follow the shoreline around past a statue of Young Nick (a member of Captain Cook’s crew and the first to sight New Zealand in 1769: his eagle eyes picking out the white cliffs of what is now known as Young Nick’s head) and Captain Cook. 

We walk up Kaiti hill for some good views over the Poverty Bay and the town of Gisborne.

After a slow walk down we pick up supplies for a late lunch. The afternoon is spent on the beach trying to body-surf waves, one of us more successfully than the other. 

We have some beers in the late afternoon sun and then (when we’ve run out of both beer and sunshine) head into town to a little Italian we spotted earlier.  The food is gorgeous, and they’ve got a sauvignon blanc I fell in love with in Marlborough by the glass. 

Saturday:

We wake up to more sunshine, so I tackle another beach run before hitting the shops in Gizzy.  On our way out of town we detour for a scenic loop of the hills above Gisborne, taking in a statue of Captain Cook that isn’t Captain Cook and a rather random tree planted by Princess Diana. 

Rather than short-cutting across country, we’ve decided to take the route round the remote and somewhat wild east coast.  The road takes us from one small beach town to the next.

We’ve booked a hostel more or less at random.  It turns out to be in the middle of nowhere, down a steep dirt road that’s in a phone/internet blackout zone – but it’s perfect.  The house is a ramshackle wooden affair meters from the sea and with Escher-esque staircases leading to various seating areas. 

We are just about the only paying guests, but the hostel is filled with friends of the owner here to celebrate a birthday.  Children keep materialising until we’ve lost count.  It’s noisy and chaotic, but in a warm, friendly way. 

It’s entertaining watching the kids kayaking and swimming round the calm bay – it looks like an idyllic childhood.  We eat our dinner on the balcony while the setting sun turns everything pink before retiring to our room and leaving them to it.

Sunday:

The kids are up early and so are we.  Everyone is having a go on the kayaks again, including the dog.  One kid catches a fish quite by accident – he literally scares it out of the water – and there’s a big stingray swimming about.  

Since everyone else is doing it, we brave the waters (and the stingray) for a swim.  The house opens directly onto a rocky cove (the beach here is a quick hop over some rocks around the corner), but the water is calm and deep enough to jump off the rocks. 

Soon enough the kids have tired themselves out on the kayaks and we get a go.  We kayak out across the bay and cut through some rocks to the next bay.  The water is clear and for most of the way shallow enough to see the bottom.  A little blue penguin sticks its head up to say hello and the calm waters make it easy going.

We’re back in time for lunch and by this time the visitors have all cleared off – we’ve got the place to ourselves now.  After a sandwich and a lie in the hammocks we’re ready for more kayaking.  It’s an afternoon of magical moments: the slow-motion shimmer of water droplets off the oars, the blue-silver glint of fish leaping out of the water to avoid whatever is chasing them, a tiny, secret cove sprinkled with sunlight, a cave wide enough to kayak into (but dark enough to keep you from going to far).  I think I’ve found my heaven. 

With aching arms we paddle our kayaks home, ready to cool off with another swim and relax into the evening.

Janet adds: If you ever find yourself near the East Cape of the North Island, do check out: http://www.maraehako.co.nz/index.html

Nick adds: Janet’s just been looking online and found a Macadamia nut farm for sale near here.  Considering it.

Monday:

I don’t want to leave.  Ever.  But we must move on and it is made easier by the steady rain that’s been falling all through the night and shows no signs of letting up. 

Our drive takes us further along this stunning coast, although it’s getting less remote, the towns bigger and bigger.  At Whakatane we turn inland, towards Rotorua.  The more we read about Rotorua the less we want to go there: there are some impressive sounding thermal areas, but everything is highly developed, commercialised and costs a fortune.  We decide to go anyway as it’s in the direction we need to go in.  We find a lovely spot to have lunch on the banks of one of the smaller lakes and then head into town.

The first thing to say about Rotorua is that it stinks.  Literally.  The smell of sulphur is so heavy in the air I’m almost surprised to see people going about their normal business.  We take a stroll through town and the one free thermal area: bubbling mud and sinister steaming pools don’t disappoint. 

Then we pick up some groceries and head to our camp.

Tuesday:

Today is one of our not very interesting days.  It’s still raining, it still smells and we’ve still got a hell of a lot of booking to do before we leave NZ, so we decide to have a quiet day trawling the internet for good deals.  It’s hard going as we’re almost too flexible for our own good, but we do make some progress.  The only relief in the day is a quick walk out to the banks of the lake,

and repeated visits to the campsite lorikeets, who are very chatty and utterly charming (it helps that they wolf-whistle and blow you kisses as you walk past – a bit like walking past a construction site I guess?).