East Cape

So under grey skies and with my left foot firmly tucked away from the brake (automatic car - tendency to put foot on brake whilst looking for clutch to avoid stalling!) I set off on the inland route Highway 2. Stopped off at Motu to see the falls:

The area has never been logged so a lot of big old trees. It is also a kiwi reserve - 70% of chicks are killed by stoats and a further 25% by cats, dogs and accidents. Before man arrived the only mammals here were bats, so you can see why the kiwis are an endangered species. Bet you didn't know that they can smell worms 3cm under the soil!
The road to the coast winds through the Waioeka Gorge, quite an engineering feat. The soil is poor but that didn't stop settlers trying to run farms. The Tauranga Bridge below is a 'harp' structure built in the 1920s to allow farmers to cross the river. The Maori used the river to travel through the area and Tauranga means 'arrive, alight'.



You have to be able to turn your hand to anything here in New Zealand:


Enjoyed listening to the local radio station, very reminiscent of NECR (especially the missing pets). The bed advert was for a local glazier called Glenn: 'Now and then you do need Glenn'.
Once on the coast I made quite a few stops, like this school at Torere:


Further along there was a macademia nut farm serving fantastic macademia and manuka honey ice cream. The drive way was made of nut shells.
Plenty of views of blue seas and blue skies:


I stayed the night in a cabin at a campsite where there were some wedding celebrations going on (mostly under canvas) in the pouring rain. Had an early night then left before 5 for the 20km drive along an unsealed road to the East Cape lighthouse:

Then several hundred steps to the lighthouse itself and the chance to be one of the first in the world to see the sun on Saturday 16th January 2010!


The drive back revealed the state of the road (and cursory crash barriers):

On the way south glimpses of Mt Hikurangi:


Most Maori communities have a marae or meeting house, this one is in Waipiro:


Just past there I picked up 3 French hitch hikers and they provided company on the drive to Tolaga Bay. They had got involved in the rescue of dozens of pilot whales stranded on the Coromandel Peninsula swimming them out to sea!

A not untypical amount of driftwood on the beach at Tolaga Bay:

One of the big attractions is the 660m long pier, mostly used for recreational fishing now:


Did a 2hr round trip walk to nearby Cook's Cove where the explorer was more successful in obtaining supplies:

The 'hole in the wall' looks through to Tolaga Bay:

Beach and bay:
I dropped the car in Gisborne and took the bus the next day down to Napier.