Boopy

We've just had our first holiday since emmigrating to New Zealand 8 months ago. As you can imagine, moving and setting up a new life has been just a bit busy. Also starting new jobs, you can't get time off straight away. We decided to head north east of the North Island to Gisborne, which we used as a base. We stayed at www.portsidegisborne.co.nz (Portside Hotel), a lovely hotel with full kitchen, balcony overlooking the harbour and a huge double spa bath. It was also our wedding anniversary, so I wanted something abit special. Temperatures averaged around 25c with beautiful blue skies.

We set off on Sunday 25th Feb at 8am on our 8 hour drive (still me as the only drver). Stopped off just before Napier and had a picnic, another stop at Wairo. Arriving at Gisborne at 4.30pm.

Monday we drove north along the Pacific Coastal Highway. The beaches are gorgeous, beautiful sandy beaches for miles, with not a soul around. We could've gone skinny dipping if we wanted. We drove up to Tolaga Bay, they have the longest pier in NZ - 600 meters long. A bit old and battered, in the UK it would have been classed as unsafe for the public. We took some photo's on the pier, but I didn't feel too safe, so we didn't walk to the end - even though there were people fishing at the end.

Tuesday we drove along State Highway 2 through the Waioeka Gorge Reserve to Opotiki. It was a very scenic drive, just outside of Opotiki at Ohiwa we found beaches to die for. The sand was far too hot to walk barefoot, the water was pleasant, with no oooooooooh and a shiver. About 40Kms off the coast is White Island, it's a constantly active volcano island. From the lovely beach you could see the white smoke keep puffing out.

Wednesday - Happy Anniversary to Dee & Paul. We took the Gisbone Historic Trail. Drove up to Kaita Hill & Cooks Landing, had views across the city, just across the harbour you could see our hotel. Fantastic views of Poverty Bay. This is where Captain Cook first set foot on New Zealand in 1769, sailing from Britain on the Endeavour. Across the bay on headland is a cliff named Young Nicks Head - a crew member named Nicholas Young was the first to sight land which was Poverty Bay. Gisborne is steeped with British history and monuments. At Cooks Landing there is even a tree - a Pohutukawa Tree - NZ native Xmas tree, planted by Princess Diana which is now a memorial for her. When you think of the hooha in UK to get any memorial for her at all, and they just turned a simple tree that she had herself planted into a memorial - no red tape.
We then drove to Endeavour Park, where there is a statue to Young Nick, and the river splits into two. Waikanae Beach just around the corner from our hotel, also has a statue of Captain Cook as this is where the first meeting took place between Eurpoean & Maori. In the next street is the big Cidery, you can look around and watch production. Again with information of British history, on how the workers in UK (in the late 1700's) were paid in cider and little money. Four streets away was the home of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (the famous opera singer).
Even though we aren't wine drinkers, we decided to head off the a local Winery (Jamie (19 yr old son) is a Wino & told us we had to). NZ has the right climate to produce good wines. We were persuaded to have a tasting session and a bite to eat, it was an interesting experience. The wine was much more pallatable than what we'd previously tried. We even bought ourselves a bottle of Viognier made in Gisborne.

Thursday, we went to another Winery for lunch, it was good fun, then chilled at the beach for the afternoon. Needed to relax before packing and setting off on Friday morning.

Friday set off 8.30am for 2 nights in Taupo. Paul had noticed a tourist/scenic route on the map, passing a lovely lake. This went from Wairo to between Rotorua & Taupo. I wish he would keep his ideas to himself - this road is one to avoid. What starts as a decent road, very quickly turned into a gravel road - then a single track gravel road - very skiddy on steep sharp hills. Some of the way, I ended up only doing 15kms hr. We got to the lake, there was nowhere to turn off, or the road /or tracks got even worse. About halfway along this road we hit civilisation - a visitors centre in the middle of nowwhere. We may be 12,000 miles from UK, but it really is a small world, the guy who worked there, laughed when he heard our northern accents, he was from Boldon Colliery (Sunderland) only 5 miles from where we are from. We didn't arrive at Taupo until 4.30pm.
In Taupo we stayed at Karaka Tree Motel - very reasonable. A large studio room $115 a night. All rooms have their own Mineral Spa Pools - very large - so relaxing. The motel was just aross the road to the lake, a lovely walk into town along the lakeside, lots of cafes, pubs and resturaunts. Taupo has loads to see & do. We went to Huka Falls, Craters of the Moon, Volcanic Activity Centre, Shawn the Prawn, and still loads left to see for another trip and only a 4 hour drive to Wellington..
Food is excellent everywhere you go in N.Z, people are friendly and helpful. When I learn how to put photo's on the forum I'll post them.

poppets

happy belated anniversary to you both .
great post dee ,

Boopy

Thank you Poppets

Paladin

Hey Happy Anniversary Dee, sounds like a great trip - I know what you're saying about those gravel roads LOL!


dave

karonious

Sounds like you had a great time - and after 8 months with no holiday, you deserved it!
Congratulations on your anniversary

Maz

Wow great write-up Dee, thank you so much! Belated but very Happy Anniversary wishes to you and your hubby. Glad you got to enjoy some wine... not so bad, is it? Would love to see some piccies soon!

donnaf

Happy Belated anniversary - you kept that quiet
Lovely post, can't wait to see the pics
x

Wilma & co

Brilliant write up!! And belated anniversary wishes from us lot too!!x

Boopy

Gisborne was really lovely to visit, great beaches & not a soul there. So many beaches to have your own bit. At least we had the beautiful weather when we were away.
I don't know what's happened these past few days in Wellington - has summer finished now!

shazzafromnz

Hi Boopy
Im proud to say that My great grandfather(Frederick Goodman) built that Pier at Tolaga Bay between 1926-1929..it IS in a bit of a state and some of the locals are trying to save it. Glad to hear you enjoyed your holiday.
Shazza

Boopy

That's very interesting Shazza, will mail you some photo's that we took of the pier - when I get them sorted.

shazzafromnz

Excellent,I have sent you a private email.

Boopy

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...TolagaBay1.jpg

Let's see if this has worked. It's the 600metre long wharf at Tolaga Bay.

cherry

Well done it worked ,now all you have to do is post the URL in the box and the pic will show on the forum without having to click on the url you posted,get that?easy once you have done it .Click the icon that looks like a mountain with a square in the top right hand corner .Then paste url from photobucket or whoever you use .OK