East Cape of Good Hope

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Hi guys, its been a while.

Time continues to tick by on the other side of the earth, summer has finally started to make its first appearances, although saying that, i'm specifically sat in an internet cafe today to avoid the worst of the weather, which finally arrived at lunchtime. I’m also glad that I got my wipers changed on my new vehicle which has made driving around town a little less hazardous.

So, this week I have promised for you a much less dramatic (if similarly intrepid) tale than my last entry, which even I fear reading, I have been taking it much easier.

I’ve been having some physio as a result of my car accident, which has been going pretty well, and after all even I know that a twice weekly neck and shoulder message at the hands of a young lady for free cant be turned down. I’ve also been in preparation for the Auckland Half Marathon (thanks to those who have donated, for others, there is still time guys!!.), so have been trying to balance up my drinking habits a bit more, well at least, if you can crack off a good 15kms on a Saturday Morning, you feel a bit better about quaffing a full bodied South Australian Red on a Saturday Night, the odd glass of wine is nice too. (I thankyou!)

So, just trying to retrace my steps, after the Ngauruhoe incident (see the last entry), I cancelled my last Snowcraft Trip to take a bit of time off, I ended up doing a day walk on Waiheke Island with a mate, and a few vineyards on the way, and of course, it being Auckland’s first day of sun in a while, i managed to go a glorious shade of red.

The week after, i was car hunting again. I’d seen a Volvo on trademe for sale which was a lot like my dads old 440 that i learnt to drive in. Unfortunately, to say it had lead a hard life would have been putting it mildly, it was a bit of a clunker and would have needed slightly more than ‘a bit of TLC’ i.e. an engine transplant and complete interior/exterior re-upholster would be a start. I’ve owned enough money sapping mobiles in the last 10 years to know better, so a popped into Mitre 10 ‘Mega’ (approximate to a B&Q warehouse) on the way home and purchased a Yucca Plant and some chinese-made bamboo mats, which made a far safer purchase.

Later that day, I ambled down to the Auckland Seafood Festival, which as you will correctly assume involves hideously overpriced seafood and wine, for which you had to pay a substantial entrance free to sample. It was still pretty good though, there were waitresses circling the event with trays of mussels marinated in Passionfruit and Vodka, a number of wineries and best of all at the end of the day (which we stayed for), they were giving it all away for free (and so they should). It marks the start of the spring season of wine and seafood festivals around the country, so i’m, sure i’ll have a few more tails to tell over the coming months.

Anyway, last weekend it was labour weekend, on which we had the monday off, and for a while I have had this urge to climb Mt. Hikurangi, the highest mountain on the East Cape (at 1752m). If you look on a map of the North Island, it’s the bit that juts out between Whakatane (to the north) and Gisborne (to the south). I had also managed to get my hands on a Registered, Warranted, opaque-white 1987 Toyota Corolla for the princely sum of $400 (about 140 GBP), and it even had four tyres so we were all set.

On this intrepid adventure to the Netheregions of the North Island (Aucklanders would just look at you blankly), I was joined by Bryce a mate from work, and Kingsley (a bloke I had met in the cinema) (this isn’t as dodgy as it sounds), everyone else had pulled out, which is not a bad thing , as its my first ever sedan (saloon) and four may have been an intimate squeeze.

So we managed to leave Auckland at 4pm on friday afternoon which was like an exodus in biblical times, we made good time though, and headed down Highway 2 once south of the Bombay Hills (allegedly where civilization ends until you reach Wellington), through the wonderful Karangahake Gorge onto Tauranga and through Te Puke (not pronounced as it looks unless you’re Kiwi) after which we managed to end up at the wrong campsite at Maketu (famous for its pies), and than found out that we’d been double booked at the right one, but this was a minor glitch.

Rule no.1 had been broken, we hadn’t visited the Liquor Store on the way down, and after a 5 hour drive, I needed the drink. Luckily, after enquiring at a local café that was just closing, a friendly bloke offered us some waikato draught beer from his home stock (for a price), typically east coast, and the night went well after that.

We awoke to a beautiful day perched right next to the cliffline looking over the Bay of Plenty, and soon got underway to our next destination Te Araroa on the East Cape, but before that, we thought we’d stop off for some breakfast in Matata. So we wandered into the first café with some outdoor seating we saw, there was no menu inside, so I enquired after a familiar breakfast item, the conversation went not exactly like (but something like) this;

Counter Lady no.1 : “sorry guys, no menu, what dya want?, I can do you anything”

Steve : “Erm, I’d like a Bacon and Egg sandwich please”

Counter Lady no.1 : (eyes narrow, beyond comprehension) “What”?

Steve : “Erm, A bacon…and egg, …, sandwich…”

Counter Lady no.1 : “Now theres no need to be difficult love, just make up your mind what dya want”

Steve : “Erm a bacon and egg” Anyway, I think you get the picture.

So after we’d settled on and were duly supplied with 3 bacon and egg toasties, that is toasted sandwiches, we resumed our journey to the east cape, taking in Whakatane (pro. Fackatarnay), where I was beaten to the last Hikurangi topo map by a German fella.

On the way down, we ran into the Citroen DS club who were doing their annual East Cape tour, as you would expect they were a typically diverse group. We ended up at Te Araroa Holiday camp on Saturday Night which wasn’t that flash, the beds were about a foot too short, and we had very ‘active’ neighbours. We managed to get take-away fish and chips before the town shut a 6 o’clock, the pub having burned down some years before.

Before sunset, we hot-footed it out to the East Cape Lighthouse (the most easterly in the world) and most easterly point in mainland NZ, grabbing the wheel from my co-pilot Kingsley who was slightly more pedestrian than I (by his own admission).

We returned in the dark on a gravel road, dodging a couple of heifers standing in the middle of the road which gave my passengers a fright, and got an early night.

The next day we were up early and set out for Mt Hikurangi, it was a good drive, but we ran into a hunting expedition into the mountains near the car park, a bunch of locals riding bareback, my mate asked em’ what they were hunting for, and one guys says “we’re going hunting for sheila’s bro!”, and Kingsley replies “you’re going the wrong way, you won’t find any up there”, we all burst out laughing…

We bumped into the same german guy half way up that had taken the last Hikurangi Map, but i didn’t let it come between us, and were soon drawn into a protracted conversation about how long it was going to take to get to the top. Our converastion was very specific, apparantly, theres no ‘well its gonna take as long as it takes’ in the German Language, it was “The Lonely Planet says it takes 1h30m, the DOC sign said 2h30m, why is there a difference?”, it’s a similar observation you could make about a BMW and a Rover 75, where a factory worker in Bavaria would always finish the job properly, a factory worker in Birmingham would go down the pub on a friday afternoon and forget all about filling the brake fluid reservoir.

We had to leave Bryce to his own devices in the hut half way up as the poor bloke ran out of steam, we pressed on and seemed to be going round in circles for a while pronouncing ‘this must be the top’, but the map showed a very steep ascent toward the end (closely spaced 10m contours are always telling), so when the cloud broke for 10 seconds to reveal a very narly looking summit that was some distance above our heads, it was no surprise.

The last section of a the trail involved a very steep scree scramble up a gully, to a tremendously precarious summit with some pretty strong cross winds, never being a fan of traversing exposed rock arêtes in thick cloud (as my mate Jon will testify in the Steve “Striding Edge” challenge in 2000 on Helvellyn), and fearing I would have to add another dramatic tale of close calls on mountain summits to the blog, we got within 20m in the trig point and called it quits., as we were at the same level as the trig we called a summit and began the tricky descent back to the hut where Bryce claimed he had contracted cabin fever, we’d only been gone 3 hours.

So after prising the axe from his hands, we descended to the carpark which seemed to take an eternity. The plan was to bathe our weary legs in the mineral waters at Te Puia springs, but it was closed, being booked out by a bunch of cyclists from Gisborne. So we ended up seeking accommodation at Tokomaru Bay, and made our way to the pub which overlooked the bay, I had the freshest fishermans basket ever, the muscles and oysters had just been dropped into the deep fry for just enough time to keep all of their juices washed down with a quart of beer, it was a great end to the day.

We visited NZ’s longest wharf at Tologa Bay on Monday Morning, where the locals were catching fish like they were in a barrel, a group of well-heeled aucklanders which no surprise to us comprised the jaguar car club turned up, we all agreed we preferred the citroen folk (but we didn’t let on).

We then started the drive home, but still with an appetite that could be only satisfied by geothermal soothing, we detoured via the Polynesian Spa Pools in Rotorua where you can overlook lake Rotorua whilst sitting in your hotpool (in the rain), it was awesome(if I bit smelly). We finished off our adventure with a curry, which to be honest was pretty average, and then darted back to Auckland. After a brief re-fuelling crisis about 40kms out of town due to a combination of driver error, and the fact that my fuel gauge doesn’t work, we dropped Kinglsey on the North Shore (after having some trouble finding is house)(because he couldn’t remember where he lived), and I got in about 10.30pm, so it was pretty hard out weekend.

This weekend just gone, I had my long-promised half marathon, but I shall update you in a few weeks time on that little nugget. Hope everyone’s taking it easy and looking forward to the holidays.

See you all soon, Stevo

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Comments

[kenny]

Pretty cool house Steve, when do we get the full tour?

[Steve of the North]

Open for Inspection
I'll let you have a couple of internal shots if you like Ken, of particular interest may be the mildew patches on the bathroom (no.2) ceiling, the well-worn Kauri wood floors, and not forgetting, broken door-knob to bathroom (no.1) which inhibits you making a quick escape in case of emergency. Still interested?

[kenny]

well with all those mountains outside who wants to be indoors anyway!

[Ginge]

Gob of the north
Glad you are having the time of your life , well next could be a f1 Mercedes. take care and have a good christmas .