Gisborne and the East Cape

My parents are over visiting and have a 12 day tour of the country to view the highlights, so last weekend (including Labour Day, a Monday holiday) we all headed for the East Coast where the tour does not take them. This also happens to be the most reliable part of the island weather wise and we struck it lucky with 3 days of sunshine while the rain came down on Wanganui.

First stop was Napier and from there we moved north to Gisborne, the "first city to see the sunrise" and a part of the North Island we'd yet to visit. It proved to be an attractive small city with good eating options and a host of monuments commemorating the fact that Captain Cook and crew landed here after first spotting the country (though he had a little contretemps with the locals and didn't hang about long). It was also their annual food and wine festival so by evening more than a few of the inhabitants (temporary or permanent) were having trouble with their grasp of reality and the concept of vertical.

Elsewhere the Cape features rugged country where the Maori culture is still strong, and inland the extensive Te Urewera National Park helps preserve a large area of native forest. The mainly dirt "main road" through the park is beautiful but the feeling of dust building up on every surface of car and skin was reminiscent of African travels. Shame the grey dust here doesn't give the same attractive "fake tan" as red Malawi dirt.