Advertisement
Photo 07
The pure waters of Lake Waikareiti I left Whakatane on a beautiful sunny day, which as New Zealand's sunniest spot, it has a lot of. The drive south to Gisborne took me through densely forrested river valleys and, as I neared the coast of Poverty Bay, farmland made starkly beautiful by the autumnal colours. I stopped off in Gisborne only to stock up on food, but this town holds an important place in NZ's European history, as the first spot where Captain James Cook (here he is again!) came ashore. There's a small statue to mark the event, as well as a more enigmatic memorial to Nick Young, the lookout who first set eyes on the landmass and won himself a load of booze and the honour of having a nearby chunk of rock named after him.
But aside from that there wasn't anything to keep me in Gisborne (my only previous knowledge of the place was a memory of being in Picton two years previously when an earthquake hit 75km off the coast from Gisborne, shaking our hotel as we sat watching telly all the way down on the South Island). My destination for that night was Lake Waikaremoana, set within the massive Te Urewera
Photo 03
Where are all the other tourists?! National Park. Unfortunately I'd left it late booking accommodation, so all that was left as I drove down through the vineyards of northern Hawke Bay was a $65 room at a lodge on neighbouring Lake Whakamarino. I arrived after an hour's drive down a gravel track at dusk to find myself the only guest... with an entire building to myself! I'm afraid to say I was a little bit spooked (well look at it... it was a bit institutional) and locked myself in my room straight after dinner!
I woke the next morning to low level mist on the surrounding hills, and drove the short distance to the Lake Waikaremoana visitor centre. The lake and several neighbouring lakes were created by natural landslides, but there are also Maori legends attached to them (which are, as usual, amazingly poetic) and the area retains a very prominent Maori population. The weather held, so I walked up to a smaller lake, Lake Waikareiti, which is one of the purest in New Zealand. The water is amazingly clear, and as no foreign pests have found their way here, so is the flora and fauna. In particular, the birdlife, some of which live on
Photo 10
A bloody big rata vine islands in the lake. Sadly I only had time for a cursory look, but the walk there, ascending 300m through unspoilt rainforest, was worth it. Before leaving, I also visited the Aniwaniwa, Bridal Veil and Parakorito Falls, all conveniently located near the visitor centre (or maybe that's the other way around...), and a thousand year old rata vine which boasted a 12m diameter trunk... quite a sight.
As the afternoon's light faded, I headed south through Hawke Bay wine country to Napier, a little coastal town I'd always wanted to visit for it's architecture. I love art deco, and Napier is hailed as one of the best preserved art deco towns on the planet, having been rebuilt comprehensively after an earthquake in the 1920s (lucky it happened then and not in the 60s...). It certainly has something more than your bog standard New Zealand town, which I hate to say are generally pretty dull, soulless affairs. Napier has the feel of a British seaside resort, complete with pebbly beach and seafront promenade, and a compact grid of streets lined with low art deco buildings picked out in pastels and the occasional bright colour. It's cheery, tree-lined streets are a
Photo 15
A local Napier lass nice place to stroll through, but there isn't really that much to see, and the place's obsession with art deco makes it a bit of a one-horse town. Still, I managed to fix a greenstone pendant I'd been wearing for most of the year (and took off for fear of losing it snorkelling in Malaysia), and watched a bright orange sunset over the Pacific.
And with that, it was time to move on... my next destination was supposed to be Tongariro to trek the famous Crossing, but snow and storms had closed the tracks, so I decided to head further east and try to loop back that way if conditions improved. So on, instead, to Taranaki...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 36; dbt: 0.045s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
RJLR
Rose Robin
Beautifully written!
It's lovely reading about your travels, I like your style.