Gisborne, Mahia Beach and Lake Waikaremoana

---

---

Hi guys,

finally managed to get to the internet (and lost it again for two days as the library closed for the day grrrrh). We spent nearly a week in a place called Gisborne which is on the east side of North Island. It was very sunny and we had the best sunsets. I will post a picture of one! We did some sightseeing in Gisborne, went to the Botanic Garden and read lots about Cooks landing and the first encounter with Maori people. On Friday, we decided to go and visit a local club, to be exact a RSA club where we had to be signed in and were allowed to listen to live music and play darts, snooker with the locals. We even got some plums from an old toothless man 😊 who claimed to be the owner!

Lukas keeps looking for a surfboard but we cannot find anything suitable. He actually wants to try everything: surfing, rafting, skydiving, bungee, fishing everything! We met six Czech tourists which put us off a little. They are usually working and surfing there. We headed down to Mahia Beach and stopped in Morere Springs Scenic Reserve (Hot Swimming Baths) - you cannot get enough of them over here! $6 entry fee with 2 hour track round the rain forest and 5 baths with different temperature in the nature! We then watched the sunset at Mokotahi Hill Scenic Reserve. I was a little grumpy today for an unknown reason! Oh well, I am a woman end of the day! 😊

We set off towards the lake Waikaremoana which is one of the NZ Great Walks. It can get crowdy when the weather is nice. There is a gravel road everywhere so we decided to take it easy. We did an Onepoto Caves and Lou's Lookout. The lake looks beautiful and is well preserved! We stayed in Rosie Bay over night and it started raining. We spoke with a Kiwi primary school teacher from Wellington who is traveling on her own! Not a nice view of a bits some tourists leave behind thought if they are not using the toilets provided. Absolutely awful and I am not surprised the NZ Government is restricting the campers.

We got up early today and went up the Pukenui (1186m) which is a part of the lake's walk. The weather is a little cool but hot on the sun. I managed to develop some sort of an alergy to sun! Lukas then tried his wetsuit and did some diving in the lake.

We drove back to Wairoa and had some fish & kumara chips. It is packed in a newspaper and eaten by hand over here! We are heading towards the beach and Lukas will do some fishing.

Woke up early on Wednesday and went towards Tangoio Falls - Te Ana was the most beautiful. Spent the whole day fishing (I wasn't excited) but at least had some time to read. Lukas didn't catch anything and was disappointed a little however we still had something to eat in the campervan 😊 It was a very sunny day and we just picked up some water in Napier and slept in Le Quesne where we received a warning about overnight parking. Ups, well at least we didn't have to pay a fine. Napier looks cool as they say Art Deco after an earthquake.

Will keep you updated. Our next stop will be Taupo. We would like to go rafting and Lukas bungee jumping.

---