When we decided to leave Taranaki, we got in touch with Belinda’s sister Julia, who lives on the East Cape with her partner Gordon. Like Kieran and Belinda, she and Gordon had recently signed up to be Wwoof hosts as well. Unfortunately and somewhat amazingly, they happened to be hosting their first two Wwoofers (a pair of Californian college buddies) during the same period that we were in the area. However, they graciously offered to put us up for a night or two in their home in Tokamaru Bay on our way through the East Cape.
We left Gisborne on Wednesday morning and set out to complete the first leg of an allegedly tres windy drive through the East Cape. The weather was once again stunning with clear sunny skies highlighting lush green hills and a dazzlingly blue ocean. This part of New Zealand is Whale Rider country, as the movie was filmed on location at a marae north of Gisborne. Though we wholeheartedly recommend the movie (an eloquent parable about the Maori in modern times), we didn’t actually stop at the filming sites, mostly because they had removed the road sign causing us to miss the turn, but also because we’ve heard that tourist visits have annoyed the locals in the small town. And so we skipped that stop and continued north to Tolaga Bay, which holds the distinction of having the longest wharf in New Zealand (660m), a structure that’s at once scenic and depressing. The decay of the wharf echoes the Cape’s fall as a center of economic activity, and even though it’s seen better days, it’s a nice place to stroll and fish.
The Tolaga Bay wharf takes a pretty picture, but we probably shouldn't have stood this close to the railing
Next stop was Tokomaru Bay, described by the guides as a ‘picturesque and crumbling’ town. True to the description, Tokomaru Bay used to be home to a large freezing works but has fallen on tough times since it closed. Now the area is home to the retired, the unemployed, and the holiday homeowner. The beaches here are lovely and more than make up for the paucity of most other amenities.
We arrived at Julia and Gordon’s in time for an evening fishing trip. We all hopped on board the boat and, per the traditional Kiwi method, were towed down to the water using a large tractor. It was a bumpy ride over the large rocks, but eventually we got ourselves in the ocean. It was great to see the coastline from the water, and we really enjoyed our time cruising around the bay. The actual fishing trip was less successful, but still good fun. Gordon had forgotten to bring along the anchor, so we ended up using some crayfish pots to anchor ourselves. Julia had managed to catch a fish within seconds of throwing in the first line, and so we thought this was going to be a breeze, but the rest of us were less successful. All told, we caught one snapper, one kahawai, and two sharks. The sharks weren’t very happy about it and did a good job of thrashing around on the deck. Perhaps they were attracted by my contribution to the fishing mission, as I managed to lose my lunch on a second consecutive day (the acrobatic flight causing the first loss).
The view from Gordon and Julia's porch - obviously they have it rough on the cape
The next morning, with such nice weather around and no place to be any time soon, Andrew and I took Julia and Gordon up on their offer for us to spend another night with them. As such, we felt we should do a bit of wwoofing work to cover our room and board (and to not inspire mutiny among the other Americans). Andrew got to work helping Gordon with some chainsawing, and I dug in to my specialty, weeding. The weather turned pretty scorching by the afternoon, so Andrew and I eagerly knocked off and headed to the beach. Hey, it’s not going to be nice when we get home, better soak it up while we can.
Hey, we remembered to get a group shot this time
By the following morning, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. However, it was time for us to get back on the road and continue our trip around the East Cape. We arrived at the lighthouse after a few hours of driving along a typically windy road. The climb to the top of the lighthouse was steep but worth the trip to the top.
You think we'd talk about seeing a lighthouse and not have a picture? For shame.
Back on the road shortly after, we finished the last half of the East Cape drive fairly quickly. We really enjoyed this last bit of the trip, from meeting Tanya and Cozzie in Gisborne, Kelly and her high flying family, Julia and Gordon in Tokomaru Bay, and then the lighthouse… it was a bit of a let down once we were done, because now we’d essentially visited all the places we were compelled to see in New Zealand. The gray weather seemed to suit our mood as we holed up for the night at a backpackers in Whanarua Bay. Now all of our attention was focused on the few days remaining before we had to be back in Auckland for our stint of house-sitting for Couchsurfers Rachel and Shanon. How to kill a few more days, that’s a good question.
Pondering the big questions from Whanarua Bay
No comments:
Post a Comment