East Coast

Gisborne, Tuesday 17 March (update from the last post)

Spent the late afternoon walking around Gisborne's hill Titirangi and seeing Cook-related sites. There's a memorial up roughly where Cook landed – a memorial and a bit of grass, right next to a logging yard. A container ship from Hong Kong was loading. I couldn't help wondering what Cook would have made of it all now. It was, slightly, depressing. Cook's achievements were such that he rates more than a stone memorial in a logging yard. I think he'd have been happier with the Endeavour.

After seeing the memorial I climbed up Titirangi for views of the town and the bay, and down to the very large marae below it. Back towards the holiday park I paused at the statue of Cook and the one of his cabin boy Young Nick, who first spotted NZ. I bet Nick never realised what he did and how important it was.

Fish and chips for dinner. Mmm.

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Te Araroa, Wednesday 18 March

When the Lonely Planet said the amenities blocks here at Te Araroa Holiday Park needed an upgrade, they weren't kidding – I feel like I've gone back in time. Back in time with the price, too – just $12 for me and my little tent for the night. The whole day in fact has been a bit back-in-time; the East Coast seems as though it hasn't moved on much from the 60s or 70s. Faded buildings, old vehicles, farmers driving quad bikes around, roads that need improving, no mobile reception and no internet. Instead of modern stuff which you can do without, there's miles and miles of wild empty beaches, green green hills, sheep and cows, and trees. Not much else. The main industry appears to be logging – timber trucks kept passing me all day on those windy roads carrying their cargoes to Gisborne. Apart from that, it's agriculture or road maintenance, apparently. I did a feature on East Coast schools at one point and I remember they were predominantly low-decile, overwhelmingly Maori and trying to deal with all sorts of problems. You can see why, driving the coast. Everywhere's so isolated. I turned down into Waipiro Bay, a ten-minute narrow windy road off the main state highway, and there's a school down there. The town's just a few houses, the church is in disrepair, and yet they're trying to run a school.

Despite the general run-downness of the coast, however, it's stunningly beautiful in a very North Island sort of way. Lots of evidence of seismic activity in the landscape. I imagine it must have looked relatively similar when Cook got here, though there was probably more bush and less grass. My first stop this morning was Cook's Cove walkway, going to a cove he landed in in late October 1769. There's a random plaque on a block of concrete overlooking the cove, informing you that Endeavour took on wood and water and Banks and Solander collected plants. It was a nice walk, first up through farmland and then down through bush, and there was a rather nice hole in the rock to look at as well.

Had lunch by the Tolaga Bay wharf, the longest pier in the southern hemisphere, built in the late 1920s and rather run down now. It's long out of use except by fishermen.

I'd planned to stop a lot more than I did – I missed the turnoff for Whangara, where Whale Rider was set and filmed, which was a bit annoying. I thought I'd stop in Tokomaru Bay, after Tolaga, but there wasn't anything to stop for. Waipiro was a nice little diversion and I'm glad I did it, though was puzzled by the road back to SH35 which was sealed for a bit, then unsealed, then sealed for about 50m, then unsealed, and so on. Made no sense whatsoever.

After that I planned to stop for an ice-cream in Ruatoria, but even the Lonely Planet was being rather kind to what turned out to be a very depressing sort of place, and I turned round and got out of Dodge.

Once I'd arrived at tonight's holiday park (and had pitched my tent away from the pig and two piglets that were nosing around) I went for a nice walk on the absolutely deserted beach and watched the surf for a bit. That was lovely. Then it started to rain, and absolutely chucked it down for a while.

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Awatiri, Thursday 19 March

It seems like today's been a long day, but I'm ultimately chilled out thanks to 40 minutes in the hot pool attached to tonight's holiday park and some lovely Hawke's Bay rosé. Blogging offline while sitting outside (mainly because that's the only way I can a) sit and b) have the computer plugged in to recharge) and it's warm and sunny. Lovely.

Woke up at 6am and wondered what I was doing getting up before dawn, before remembering that I wanted to be the first in the world to watch today's sun rise. I was a bit late leaving according to the timeplan the holiday park guy gave me, but the road was fine – only partially unsealed – and it was getting light by the time I reached the East Cape (having successfully avoided running over one rabbit, two unspecified birds, and a large dog en route). I was worried I'd missed the best of it, so hurried up the stairs to the lighthouse. It's supposed to take 25 minutes, I did it in ten. Up there were six or seven people who'd been more sensible than me and had camped by the roadside at the bottom of the hill, and together we watched a beautiful sunrise by a very well-maintained lighthouse. It was all rather lovely.

Had breakfast back at the park, packed up my things and hit the road. I wasn't sure how much I'd stop – there seemed to be things of potential interest on the map and in the Lonely Planet, but things that say they're interesting aren't always and vice-versa. In the end I didn't stop much at all. Some things that seemed interesting weren't signposted, and by the time you notice them they're gone. Others (the church in Tokere, for instance) were somewhat dilapidated and I didn't bother stopping. I did however pause in Ruakorere[CHECK] where there's a beautiful little church built in 1894 by the shoreline. Definitely worth a look. Their graveyard was a family one, for many generations of Stirlings, and a sign asked you not to go in. Also I had to take my shoes off to go into the church, to protect the carpet.

After that, I didn't stop at all until Opotiki apart from a coffee at Te Kaha. Nevertheless it was a great drive, with more stunning East Coast scenery – deep green bush bordered by the bright blue Pacific. The interior looked pretty mystical and spooky, cloud-clad and dark. I'd like to go and look at the Ureweras at some point. On the way I passed loads of little marae, all beautifully carved and well looked after. In fact the marae are a lot better looked after than the churches, which says a lot for community spirit and not much at all for religion out here. It would have been wonderful to get a look inside the marae, but unfortunately – unlike churches, which invite you in for a wander around – marae are the sort of places you need invitations for. There's clearly a strong Maori spirit that still influences the East Coast, and with slogans adorning a lot of the vehicles around people are evidently proud of who they are and where they've come from.

Around lunchtime I arrived in Opotiki. I'd planned to stay the night here but it was way too early and the town way too small. I had a wander down the main street, looked at the old buildings and the nice church, put more petrol in the tank for tomorrow's drive to Auckland, and carried on! I paused at the nearby Hukutaia Domain, a small space devoted to native plants and trees, where there's a half-hour bush walk through some lovely bush. Lots of tree ferns and so on. There's also a puriri tree which is estimated to be well over 2000 years old (!!!) that used to be used as a “burial tree” by the local hapu. They dug up bones a few years after death and re-interred them inside the hollow trunk. There was an earthquake some time ago that exposed the bones, so the iwi moved them and lifted the tapu on the tree and now you can go and see it. It's an extraordinary old tree, all gnarled and knotted, with a great hollow bit inside. I wished I'd had a tripod; my photos are all a bit blurry. Anyway I liked the walk and the domain and the tree and was glad I'd made the detour.

As I was so early I decided to carry on past Opotiki and cut down tomorrow's drive to Auckland. After a bit of Lonely Planet and map-consulting I settled on Awatiri, just off the road north towards Rotorua, where the holiday park has hot springs. It's a nice holiday park and the hot springs pool, a proper swimming pool size, was wonderful. I soaked and relaxed for a while. $15 well spent!

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Auckland, Friday 20 March

Finally in Auckland after a sloooooow drive up this morning. Lots of traffic, lots of slow traffic. However I didn't get lost in Auckland despite the diversion in place and got the car back only half an hour late (which wasn't a problem).

Have repacked my bags for Australia and I catch an early flight to Melbourne tomorrow. :)

Flickr all updated.