So on the tuesday i headed off after finding a hire car. The plan was to hire it for about 10 days and to drive it round the east coast, finishing in Wellington in time for my birthday. I drove out to Mount Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty. it was a very nice place with a lovely beach. It was so windy though! Still the remnents of this major storm system that battered New Zealand (the same one that shut the Milford round). I had a nice walk down the beach though and round by the Mount (the Mount is an old volcano linked to the spit of land that is Mt Maunganui town). I was going to climb it, but it was SO windy, I didnt risk it and thought I'd do it the next day.
So the next day i got up early and climbed the Mount. It was still pretty windy, but not quite as bad as the previous day. lovely views across to t
Tauranga and the bay of plenty. Then I drove along the Pacific Coast highway to Whakatane. The plan was to stay there for 2 nights so I had a full day to go to White Island, which is a great big active volcano about 50kms out to sea. It sounded like a lovely trip, but they hadn't been running the trips that week because of the weather, but they were hoping it would be ok the next day. So I booked myself on the tour. Later that evening I got a phone call saying the trip was cancelled due to the strong winds :( But there were some really nice looking walks around the area and out on the peninsular near there, between Whakatane and Ohope beaches, so the next day I did that instead with a Finnish girl from teh hostel. It was a lovely day for a walk, still pretty breezy on top of the hill, but as soon as we came down a bit, the wind dropped and it was a lovely sunny day.
the next day I headed out round onto the Eastern cape, still following the coast which was lovely. The Pacific coast highway followed the coast for pretty much the entire of my little road trip which was very pleasant! anyway, I drove about a third of the way around to this tiny little bay called Maraehako Bay. This was my base for the next few nights. It was a lovely hostel! It was right on the seafront of this tiny little bay, in the middle of nowhere. The host was so lovely and hospitable, when I got there I went up and had a cup of tea with him and then, even though Id just eaten my sandwich for lunch an hour or so ago, was invited to have some fresh snapper with him and his friend that they'd caught. It was lovley! I said Id just have a little bit as I'd just had my lunch, but I was presented with a plate with two great big steaks of snapper on it! As it wasn't the full season yet, the hostel was pretty quiet, with just me and 5 Bavarians staying there. The hostel itself was really interestingly designed - it reminded me of a treehouse! all made of wood with loads of different ramps, stairs and sections to get to places. It was great! and had such lovely views out to see and of the bay.
The next day I wanted to go on a historical tour up to Cape Runway and learn about the Maori history and cultures of the area, and go into a Marae and stuff. I'd planned to ring up the lady who does the tours, but there had been a powercut over night and the phones were down so I couldnt arrange a tour after all! So that put an end to that idea! So I went round to the next bay along and sat enjoying the view instead. It was still pretty cloudy and windy, so not really beach weather unfortunately. That evening, our host at the hostel cooked us a load of crayfish up for tea. We all bought a dish of salad or vegetables and had a feast down by the sea, it was lovley! The Bavarians had bought a guitar with them so we were treated to lots of Bavarian folk songs and a few games of the old classic 'who am I' to finish the evening off. I've played that game so much since travelling!!
The next day I had a lovey day, the sun finally came out! I drove up to the top of the cape first, to a lovely place called Lottin point. The road of the highway was really steep and windy, but it took me to this lovely secluded beach. I stayed there a while before heading on to Te Araroa. This is the town closest to the road that leads off to teh East Cape lighthouse - the most easterly lighthouse in New Zealand, and the world. The 17km drive from there to the lighthouse was lovely, the scenery was so beautiful. Once I arrived at the lighthouse, it was a 20 minute or so climb up to the top. I sat there for quite a while in the sunshine, enjoying the spectacular views. On the way down, I bumped into the Bavarians again - they had god dressed into their traditional outfits to climb up to the lighthouse, carrying a bavarian flag with them - it was a hilarious sight! I drove back to Te Araroa to go in search of a massive tree there - it's over 360 years old apparantly and has over 40 branches - it was pretty big!
From there I travelled round the cost a bit to a tiny place called Tikitiki where I stayed the night. I was the only person in this backpackers and the door had no lock on it, so I didnt sleep that well that night! but it was a really lovely area, all farmland and my neighbouring field was full of horses. I was hoping to try my hand at bone carving there, but it was closed for the winter. The next day I stopped off at St mary's church in tikitiki. This was a really beautiful Maori church. The cavings were gorgeous (see photos).
From there I headed down towards Gisborne, via Tekomaru beach as a stop for an hour or so on the way. Gisborne was a pretty place. I stayed there for one night and did a few nice walks around the city and had a few cups of coffee in a very nice little cafe I discovered :) I was planning to do a wine tour, but I got to the i-site, only to discover they're all closed for the winter - rubbish! However, I did discover that the cidery was open, so I went there the next day around lunchtime for a look. It was quite interesting. I got to taste some cider and there was a bit about ciders history - apparantly people used to baptise their babies in cider!
After the cidery I headed down to Nelson and was very relieved to find that the wineries there were all open - yay! So the next day I booked myself on an afternoon wine tour. In the morning I took myself on a self-guided tour of teh city. I really liked napier, it's a very pretty place. It's all built in a very art deco style, it reminds me of being in a Poirot film or something! Napier was levelled by an earthquake in the 1930's, hence why so many of the buildings are in the style of the times. It was a nice little walk around the town though.
So that afternoon, me and a couple of scots headed off on our wine tour. We went to 4 different vineyards. The first one was called 'the mission'. It used to be a monestary, but they moved it and transformed it into a winery instead. It hosts concerts in teh summer each year and they have had some big names there. They used to make special edition bottles of wine, celebrating the headlining act of the festival each year. From the Mission, we headed to a more exclusive winery called Moana Park. this made delicious wine! I tried a new type called Viognier which was my fave of the day I think. shame it was so expensive to buy though :(
From there we headed to another couple of wineries and went up Te Mata Peak which has stunning views of the whole of the Hawkes Bay region.
The next morning, in the vague attempt to shift some of my excess blubber, I went for a run along the seafront. It was a very short run :( after breakfast I headed out to Napier Prison to have a look, but it wasn't the right time for a tour, so I headed on up the hill to Bluff hill to have a look out at the view. that afternoon I was going to go to the museum as it apparantly had an interesting video of the history of the earthquake adn stuff, but it was closed for renovations :(
The next day i drove back to wellington. Initially, I was going to leave early, but then I thought there was no need, so I waited a bit so I could stop off at a chocolate museum on the way! there wasn't all that much at the chocolate museum to
be fair, so I just had a hot chocolate and headed on my way.
It was lovely to get back to Wellington again! I was very happy when I rounded the corner on the motorway and saw it! I got to the hostel at about 4 and was pleased to hear people were going out for a beer in the sun at 5! :)
So after catching up with my friends over a few beers at the hostel that night, I spent my final few days enjoying Wellington, walking along the waterfront, getting my 80's costume ready for our fancy dress triple birthday celebration and going to Somes Island which is in the middle of the harbour in Wellington, seeing glowworms in the botanical gardens.
The birthday celebrations were fun, lots of neon clothing, terrible blue eye make up and making a neon green scrunchie for my lopsided ponytail tht I was pretty proud of! It was a good night and we drank lots at Rosemere before heading out to the cheesy 80s club, electric Avenue.
The day after I headed out to Somes Island. It was a gorgeous day and I spent a lovely couple of hours walking the tracks around the islands and going skink-spotting on the sides of the paths. I saw quite a lot of them. No tuitaras or gekkos though unfortunately. The next day I headed off to Auckland to catch up with a few friends before meeting mum and dad at the airport.
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