Blogs from Gisborne, East Coast, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Sunday dawned rather overcast and it looked very unlikely as light started to appear in the eastern sky that a rising sun out of the ocean,that we had hoped for,wasn't going to appear as we wanted.But there you go that is nature and lets face it the weather more than often doesn't always perform the way we want it to. Still it was quite magical to lie in bed and watch the light in the sky change and at least it wasn't raining. We didn't have far to travel today down to Gisborne,our next and last overnight stop before we head home to Tauranga, on this mini tour of the East Coast so lying in for a while when we had suggested to our hostess that brekkie at 8.30 would be just for fine for us ... read more

23rd November Getting good at sorting myself out in the morning, it’s them best way to avoid a hypo incident in a walk is to straight out for my walk after breakfast. Having looked at a map yesterday I decided to follow the river to the botanic gardens and go to the museum and have lunch on the way back. It is a flat walk following a cycle path, so pack my normal water, snacks and glucose tablets. Left the campsite just before 10. The first part if walk takes me along the sea from and past the docks, where they are manoeuvring another timber laden ship out of the harbour. I think they load one shop with every tide. No need to use the railway line to cross the river today the river is the ... read more

New Plymouth to Gisborne 24th February Up early and on the road at 7am Now Doris (our Sat Nav) wasn't quite awake and as we went down the east side of Mt Taranaki she wanted to take us back to Dawson Falls. Mind you Mt Taranaki looked beautiful with the sun rising on her. We'd chosen to go South towards Palmerston North before passing through the Manawatu Gorge and turning North for the run up to Gisborne. With Doris now awake we headed down to Hawera, now don't expect too much stopping on this route. For instance Hawera's listed highlights include an Elvis Presley museum which houses over 10,000 of the kings records and a mind boggling collection of memorabilia!!! Apparently a good pit stop to stretch your legs, onwards to Whanganui which we easily bypassed ... read more

The ozone at Rere Falls helped dispel last night's grogginess due to overindulgence in wine. The falls are about 60 kilometres north of Gisborne and a popular place for local people to picnic. A family was there with their relative from the USA, a laid back man who was impressed with how clean and pretty the place was. "If this was the States, it'd be covered in trash," he told Matt (my husband who I was travelling with) and I. A wood pigeon perched in a large tree; the falls splashed into a brown river that ran into a grassy distance; the sun was warm and pleasant. Ahhhhh. We drove on to Napier where we would stay for two weeks with Matt's family, to celebrate Xmas and New Year. Sadly, his lovely mother, Anne, would not ... read more

Gisborne is best wel een gezellig stadje met enkele heel grote winkelstraten. Het is de moeite om rond te lopen in Muirs bookshop. De oudste boekenwinkel van de stad. Op de 2e verdieping kan je koffie drinken en brownie's eten! Na wat rondslenteren kwamen we opnieuw een boekenshop tegen, dit was misschien wel de 2e oudste van de stad...in elk geval was het een bizar winkeltje. De rekken stonden overvol met oude boeken. Ik kocht een boekje uit 1900 voor $2.00! Poëzie van Lord Byron. Dit zou je in België niet vinden! We zagen heel veel oude boeken, eerste drukwerken van bekende schrijvers (boeken die meer dan 200 jaar oud waren en in goede staat) voor slechts $2.00! Dju toch! Waarom is het zo duur om iets op te sturen naar België?? Vanuit Gisborne reden we ... read more