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Published: March 27th 2006
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Stay Left
John left us a note in the car to help Erin out Hello again! It’s been a while, and I have heaps to tell you about!
It’s Monday here, and I just took my first test for my Maori studies class. I think it went pretty well, especially since I didn’t spend a lot of time studying this weekend…
Instead, Erin and I rented a car and toured the East coast. Erin drove (of course), and did a great job staying on the left side of the road and figuring out the roundabouts. We left Friday morning and drove East to Whakatane, where we stopped and shopped a bit, then continued on the scenic highway of the East Cape. It was beautiful - the pictures don’t even begin to describe it. We stopped a couple of times to admire the view, and once went down a little trail to where the river meets the ocean. Here we met Dar from Portland, OR, who comes to NZ every year to fish. He doesn’t keep the fish - he always throws them back. He’s taking full advantage of retirement - his wife is in Mexico right now, and soon they’re going to meet up in Berlin, travel around Germany, then stay in a
villa in Tuscany for a while. Wow.
The point of traveling the East Cape was to see the very first sunrise of the day at the East Cape lighthouse. The road to the lighthouse is a little gravel road that takes about 30 minutes to get down. We stopped in the town to eat (just before they closed at 7 - most places were already closed), ate in the car, then started up the gravel road to spend the night in the car at the bottom of the lighthouse. When we got there, there was another car, or van, with two guys in it. We parked and eventually got up the nerve to get out, and one of them came out to meet us and invite us in. We hung out with them for a bit - they turned out to be really nice - Ian and David from Ottawa, Canada. Ian’s been traveling around NZ for a while and David’s been in Australia, and they just met up to travel together some. It was great hearing all their stories and talking about our travels.
We went to bed (aka the front and back seats of the little
beautimous!
the view from one of our stop-offs - there were two islands out there, with the sun rays between them. it was gorgeous! car) early, and woke up around 5:30 to see the sunrise. We had to climb up to the lighthouse first - 700 steps. It was beautiful at the top, but also rainy and windy and cold. Not the best sunrise experience, but still amazing. I hope your sunrise 19 hours later was better. : ) When we came back down and were getting ready to go, there was the most amazing thing in the field - a perfect rainbow! Again, the pictures don’t do it justice. It was extremely clear and bright, and noth ends of it were in the field among the cows. No pot of gold at the end, though, at least that we could see. There was another one when we started driving. So, all before 7 in the morning, we saw the first sunrise of the day and two spectacular rainbows.
From there we drove down the East Cape to Gisborne, where Captain Cook was supposed to have landed when he discovered New Zealand in 1769. Not much else there, other than the yummy Pizza Hut we ate at. : )
From Gisborne we drove down to the Hawke’s Bay area and Napier -
the area in NZ most famous for its wine and vineyards. Our first stop was the hostel where we ate and slept - the car hadn’t been too comfortable the night before. That night we hung out in the lounge and watched New Zealand’s Brainiest Kid with a bunch of people. A bunch of 12 year olds were competing, and were freakishly smart.
The next day we toured Napier (mostly by getting lost) and visited a winery/vineyard outside of town. We didn’t get to do a tour, but had great food and wine at the restaurant. Then we started on the 5 hour drive back to Hamilton, stopping to see the Craters of the Moon thermal area outside Taupo.
All in all a great trip - Erin was exhausted from driving at the end of it, but we saw some beautiful views and met fun people. Enjoy the pictures!
(Going backwards - next blog entry is the weekend before - March 17-19, trip to Auckland. Didn’t want to completely overwhelm you with two weekends in one blog)
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anonymous
non-member comment
Wow Kathy- Youare so much more fun than I am. I wonder why Erin didn't let you drive...