East As 2006

Hi all, been busy as of late so I haven't had time to update you on my holiday road trip yet. Here we go.

So it was school holidays about 3 weeks ago now and over that time Jess and I rented a campervan and toured the east coast of the North Island. There is much folklore about this part of NZ - bareback Maori horsemen, no electricity, road gangs holding you up for money, etc., so we just had to see if any of it was true for ourselves.

After the science conference I attended (geeky sounding but uber interesting AND great food and drink) I hopped a bus to Auckland to pick up "Elroy" our Spaceship (see the East As pictures.) I then travelled to Tauranga to pick up Jess and begin our roadie. So on Saturday (July 8th) we left Tauranga for bigger (read: smaller) and better things. We stopped in Whakatane first where we toured the town and harbour. Re-mounting our steed we drove to Opotiki where we stopped for the first night. Outside of Opotiki was a short little nature walk with the highlight being a 2000 year old Puriri tree that ancient Maori tribes used to bury their dead in. The thing (Taketakerau) was amazing. I hope I can live 2000 years and be as gnarled and disfigured. Speaking of gnarled, I bought the Gnarls Barkley CD for the trip. Very good, although it took a few listens.

On the second day we wanted to stay at the East Cape lighthouse and be the first (in the world?) to see the sun rise. So we blasted off in that direction stopping heaps of times for photo oportunities. We made it to Te Awaroa (the closest town to the lighthouse) for lunch and then headed out to the lighthouse after a bite. On the way we encountered a ROAD CLOSED sign and began to turn back when we saw other cars go through. So being the adventurers that we were we carried on. On making it to the lighthouse we found a Kiwi Experience bus and all its british travellers. The bus driver, in a fairly gruff manner, proceded to quiz us if "we had seen the ROAD CLOSED sign?" and "did any road gangs stop us?" Apparently these gangs stop tourist looking cars and demand money to pass. We said "No, no road gangs" but sufficiently spooked we ran the 750 steps to the lighthouse, took the required number of photos, ran back down and got the hell out. We didn't stop until we hit Waipiro Bay (which by the way means alcohol in Te Reo) where we stopped for the night.

Day three saw us leave Booze Bay and drive south to Gisborne. Gisborne holds the distinction as being "the first city in NZ to see the sun." True or not we really liked the place. Good museum, good coffee, good parking, what more can you ask for? We left Gisborne late in the afternoon and drove to Mahia on the Mahia peninsula where we stayed that night. (We stayed in a sweet as holiday park, with showers and toilets - up until then we had been "roughing it" at road side stops. Rough it is in quote because the road side stops were possibly the most scenic places to sleep ever.)

On the morning of day four I went for an early morning run. (I'm training for a half-marathon which is next weekend, thanks for asking.) I ran along the only road in or out and then decided to cut across to the beach and run back the beach to the holiday park. Not 5 minutes into my run back I came across a beached whale - still flipping it's flipper and blinking it's big black eye. I circled the whale two or three times trying to decide what to do and decided my best bet was to go get help from someone who probably knew more than me about stranded whales. So I ran (rather more briskly now) towards the motor camp. I came across another whale about one kilometre farther but this one was much larger and much deader (the sea gulls were already working it over.) I carried on back to the camp and told the lady at the front desk who called the Department of Conservation. I got cleaned up and ate breakfast and drove back out. There was a DOC truck at the spot so I stopped hoping to help or at least get some answers to the many questions in my head. The DOC lady said it was probably a Pygmy Sperm Whale calve and the dead one its mother. She said there was nothing to do for it because it stresses them too much and they almost always re-strand themselves - her partener was bringing a rifle. We left when the partener arrived but didn't speak much for the rest of the morning. It was all a very amazing and odd experience. And by the way, if you want to see one too (a beached whale that is) just go to Mahia and stay for a while. The DOC lady said the Mahia peninsula has the second highest rate of strandings in the world.

So carrying on...day four we passed through a number of scenic little villages, including the town (Whangara) where "Whale Rider" was filmed/set. We made it to Napier at around lunchtime and toured the city for the afternoon. Napier was destroyed in 1931 by a huge earthquake and was subsequently rebuilt in the style of the time, which was Art Deco. So most of the downtown is all Art Deco. It's kinda neat. We stayed at a little reserve outside Napier that night.

The fifth day we went to Bay Espresso for breakfast and then headed back to Taupo. On arriving in Taupo I shaved my beard and unloaded some of my dirty clothes. After that ordeal we drove on to Rotorua, where we were planning on staying the night. We went to the Rotorua museum because it was raining in sheets at that time. We tried to find a good place to stop but all had "NO CAMPING" regulations. So since Rotorua was just an hour from Tauranga we drove back to Jess' house. But don't worry, we didn't waste the campervan, we slept in it in her driveway.

So that's the trip. Again, so everyone knows, there is a photo album of it at My photos site.

Much aroha.