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Published: March 11th 2009
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Kaikora to Whakatane
Hello from Whakatane (said Fa-ka-tarney)! Due to a gale force wind warning out at sea, we are stuck here for another night; more on that later.
Back in February we decided we may as well at least go to Kaikora and see if we could afford some whale watching although, as it turned out, the weather made the decision for us. Rain means no helicopters, which means no spotting of whales which means boats have no clue where to go so they just don’t go. So that’s that. Instead we spied a couple of seals, ate some fantastic fresh fish from a roadside stall, played some mini golf, got freaked out by all the tourists and ate some fudge.
Then we were off back up to Picton (that’s where the ferry to the North Island goes from). We hid out in a cabin there while it poured down and planned our Queen Charlotte track adventure. This track is quite different from others we’ve done as it’s possible to walk the whole track while staying in luxury accommodation and have your bags taken by water taxi each day making it easy peasy. Well, we couldn’t have
that could we?? What’s the point if it’s not a challenge?? (Ok, so in reality if we weren’t poor it would have been luxury all the way!). But with the weather forecast predicting rain on our last day (and because we’re not complete loonies), we went all out and booked a backpackers (kiwi for ‘hostel’) at the end of the walk.
The only way to get to the start of the track is by water taxi which heads up Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton. An unexpected bonus on the trip were dolphins!!! Very exciting! The boat man turned us around and they followed right behind the boat for a while until we had to get back on our way. So that was a great start to the walk!!
The boat drops you at Ship Cove which is where Captain Cook landed several times on his journeys around New Zealand. There is a big memorial to him there with some cannons which made John happy (what is it about cannons??). From Ship Cove it was just 2 hours to our first campsite where we were terrorised by Kevin (a strange chicken/dinosaur type bird) who kept stealing things. He especially
liked plastic bags and almost had away our dried fruit but John pursued him into the bush and finally Kevin surrendered his haul. We were to encounter several more of these thieves but we were always ready for them! More amusing were the couple who beckoned at us to walk quietly to see something hiding in the trees. No prizes for guessing that it was one of Kevin’s friends probably trying to lure the unsuspecting Aussies from the path so he could ambush them!!
So over the next three days we covered the rest of the 71km track taking in amazing views of the sounds on either side of the ridge. We were even able to see some more dolphins playing about in a bay below us. This turned out to be the most tiring walk we’d done as the days were long and we were carrying the tent. But it is certainly one of our favourite places in New Zealand and would thoroughly recommend it!
As promised, it absolutely poured it down on the final day so we arrived dripping wet at the backpackers but were welcomed in and soon dried out. After a relaxing evening and a
sleep in a proper bed (!) we caught the post bus back to Picton. Amusingly, the i-site lady (and us too) had forgotten it was a Sunday and therefore there was no post but the man came and got us anyway which was nice!
We were able to get another view of the sound from the ferry heading back to Wellington. As you can see from the photos we were lucky that it was a nice sunny day; however, it was very windy (actually not unlike today)!!
After we were back in the North Island we headed off to the East coast, to take in Gisborne and the East Cape. It is quite a long way from Wellington to Gisborne, so we broke it up by stopping over in Taupo, where I (yes John has taken over writing!!) decided it would be a good opportunity to make like a New Zealander and jump off something. Taupo is the home of the highest ‘water touch’ bungy and I was very excited about being able to replace my weekly shower, with a bath. Unfortunately due to my recent healthy lifestyle and the fact that the bungy cord was ‘new’ it
meant that I got nowhere near the water; suffice to say I was pretty disappointed, as were most of the people who smelt me that day. Jo has kindly pointed out that she was able to successfully video the event; however, unlike the last time that I did a bungy, she did not then go on to accidently delete it (hi Webbo!!).
Gisborne is very proud of the fact that it was the first place in NZ where Captain Cook landed. To me this sounds a bit odd, because Cook was so taken by the place that he felt the need to call it Poverty Bay, before hauling anchor and heading off round the coast. When we were there it mostly rained, but when the sun did shine it was genuinely quite pretty - hey everyone is a critic.
North of Gisborne the main road splits off towards Whakatane, but the smaller state highway 32 continues round the coast. We opted to take the road less travelled and enjoy the East Cape. This part of the country has been made relatively famous by the film Whale Rider. It is very beautiful and very quiet. The Maori language is
also widely spoken there and I had images of it being a bit like North Wales, where an outsider can be made to feel very much like an outsider. We did not find this at all and really enjoyed a couple of days driving through this country. We decided to take the side trip to the most eastern point of NZ and I believe we have uploaded a photo of the lighthouse there. The scenery was really lovely.
So from the East Cape heading anti clockwise round the coast we decided to stop off at Whakatane (apparently there are no animals called ‘tanes’ and they are not in need of a good whacking). You can get boats from here to the ‘White Island’, one of the most accessible active volcanoes in the world. As Jo is a geologist it appeared to be the obvious choice to book our passage out there. Unfortunately our trip has been postponed for 24 hours due to a gale force wind warning. I was slightly sceptical of this at 8am this morning, but as the building I am in feels like it is about to get its roof blown off I am starting to
be convinced. By the way if you are reading this, that probably did not happen.
Jo back again! So that gets us up to date! Next we’re heading north to Mt Maunganui (said Monganuey or ‘the Mount’) which is where all the cool kids hang out. We aim to go surfing there but i have said that so many times now and we haven’t ended up doing it so who knows! Then on it will be to the Coromandel Peninsula then Northland for some lounging about on beaches! We fly out of Auckland in a months and 2 days which is quite exciting. We are busy booking Spanish lessons and figuring out where to go in South America.
Lots of Love JT and Jo xxx
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