East Coast and Gisbourne

Feb 14 – Pacific Coast Highway

Lucky for us that we slept in the car last night, it meant we didn't have to struggle with drying the tent this morning. I was lucky enough to be up in time to snag the one shower while Beau lolly gagged about in “bed” and ended up missing out. After breakfast of oatmeal, we added cereal to it for some texture and the berries, we packed up then went for a short walk along the beach behind our campsite. The day looked promising but it just wasn't quite there yet. I was driving today and we had a few nice spots to stop for pictures while on our way. One beach was very tempting to stay longer at but we decided to keep moving instead of chilling for a bit. In Opotiki we went into the i-Site to get some info on the Pacific Coast Highway. This is the long way to go around to Gisbourne taking 6hrs to go about 330 km if you drive without stopping. We had some nice spots pointed out to us on the map and then we were on our way. Our first photo stop was a school some very nice carvings on the outside. We made multiple scenery stops along the way as well. One in particular was in Whanarua Bay where we stopped at Pacific Coast Macadamias and tried their double chocolate macadamia nut ice cream. We then drove down a one lane hill to a beach. It claimed to be the most beautiful bay in NZ. It was nice but I'm sure we've seen prettier. Our next stop was a quaint old church in Raukokore. It made a lovely scene on it's own little point. Our next stop was Lottin Point which had a very interesting drive down. We went through sheep pastures and had to watch for sheep running across the road then down a twisty turny road to the water. We climbed over a bunch of the larger rocks there and were hoping to see some muscles but no such luck. This apparently isn't a bad spot for snorkeling but we didn't go in. We were driving along and spotted a sign for a water fall. We decided to go check it out even though it was an awkward spot to park and we had to traipse through a field together. My what a traipse it was, the field was really wet and our feet got muddy and wet. YUCK. The waterfall was pretty but the walk did nothing for my temperament. We started the look out for a place to stay around Te Araroa the closest town to the east cape. We were under the impression there were two campsites around but could only find one. Looks like the other closed up shop. We checked in to a basic holiday park but they did have free hot showers! We opted to sleep in the car again since the ground was quite wet and the sky was threatening rain. We over ate at dinner time with way too much pumpkin fried rice. It was also a little dry so I don't recommend it!

Maori carved school

Whanarua Bay

Raukokore Church

Lottin Point

Waterfall

Feb 15 – East Cape

Beau and I both woke up pretty early this morning, around when the sun was about to rise, we thought of going up the the East Cape Lighthouse at this time but opted to go back to bed. It's apparently one of the first places to see the sun rise. We did get up later on and after showers and breakfast we headed off to check out the lighthouse. Turns out we should have taken advantage of the pretty nice weather this morning and gone early because it started to rain once we hit the car park. It was a bit of a hike to the lighthouse and it was raining fairly heavily so we decided against it. We drove the scenic, gravel twisty 20km back to Te Araroa and reconnected with the highway. We drove for a bit and then stopped at St Mary's Church. From the outside it just looks like your average church but inside was completely Maori. The walls were covered with Tukutuku woven flax panels and intricate carvings. It was incredible and a taste of what the inside of a marae would look like, a traditional Maori meeting house. We popped into the town of Ruatoria in hopes of an ATM but alas while they boasted a bank there was no ATM. We were getting peckish so at Tokomaru Bay we stopped by their historic wharf and ate our lunch. I was hopping to take a nice picture after we had finished eating but typically it started raining hard again. I should know better then to expect the weather to hold out for me! We had several torrential down pours while we were driving and our wipers had a hard time keeping up. We had some other plans for the day but with the bleak weather we decided against the Cooks Cove walk and snorkeling around Tolaga Bay. I was really disappointed since these two activities had been suggested to us. We got into Gisbourne and headed to the Wine Center so we could get a map and some information on the wineries in the area. Afterwards we thought to have a coffee in a nice cafe while using the internet. But we ended up being redirected to McDonald's to get wifi. We got money, groceries, coffee and wifi then headed to a holiday park for the night. We stayed at an okay priced one with a lounge and kitchen facilities. We had bought a frozen pizza for dinner and watched some tv while charging our various electronics. It was kind of rainy still so we slept in the car again. We met an older Canadian couple in the lounge and it turns out her brother lives in Brockville! Small world ehh...

East Cape Light house, the most eastern lighthouse in the world

St. Mary's Church

Maroi wall carving

Feb 16 – Gisbourne Wine Tasting

Breakfast today was a breakfast sandwich on a cheese bun but without the cheese. We eventually got our selves packed up after watching the news. There was a Green Stone shop I wanted to check out where you can see the stone carvers at work. Unfortunately there weren't any carvers carving while we were there but they did have some info on the process of carving jade. We went back to McD's to do some more updating although again I ran out of bandwidth! We then went wine tasting. Our first stop was Bushmere Estates and it was amazing!! It was a $5 tasting fee and we tried about 7 different wines. The wines were really nice but they also had food parings with most of the tastings. It was really interesting to try the wine then eat the food and see how it alters the wine. Their Vidal went amazingly with blue cheese! We bought a bottle of their Gewurztraminer which was nicely chilled then wrapped in bubble wrap in hopes it'll still be nice and cool later. We moved on to another winery and were disgusted by their tasting prices. It was $15 for 5 wines and they served them to you on a platter so I doubt you would get the same experience. We left after we used their facilities. Our next stop was Kirkpatrick Estate Winery. We were served by the proprietor and wine maker. The guy bought the winery about 8 years ago and his wine maker, who still works for him part time, taught him the ropes. He is also looking into breaking into the Canadian wine market. Beau and I shared a tasting and while his wines were quite nice we didn't buy anything since we already had our bottle. We drove down the road a little ways and then Beau took a sharp left down a road towards the ocean. We ended up at a peaceful little ocean lagoon. It was gorgeous. We ate our PB&B and had a nice walk on the beach watching the little crabs scuttle about. Later on we stopped at another beach which wasn't as pretty but still very nice. A guy was fishing off the beach and his grey lab was romping around. We ended up at a lake side DOC site that was pretty but not well maintained. The grass was super long and it looked like it might rain again so we opted to sleep in the car. There was a covered picnic table area that was great to cook under and was right next to the lake. It was very peaceful with the lake, the ducks and the black swans. It had a very Huntsville feel to it. Beau and I finished dinner while it was still day light so we played a game of crib but by the time we finished we were having trouble pegging in the low light and it was getting chilly.

Our first beachside stop

Our second beach stop

Our lakeside campsite.