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| Enjoying the coastline |
Our next stop on the east coast was Gisborne, a sizeable
surfing town with a pretty nice feel about it. The evening we arrived we shared
a four dollar (£2) pizza from pizza hut, which we ate on the beach. It was also the
evening that James Bond’s ‘Sky Fall’ came out in the cinema and we all went to
watch it – obviously all having lived in London for varying amounts of time and
being on the other side of the world, we loved it and I’ll admit I started to
get a little excited about coming home. The next morning we went looking for a
surf hire place and managed to negotiate a deal for the two days. We were not sure whether the conditions to surf were poor or maybe the owner liked us, but for whatever reason he gave us a big discount. Either way we were pretty pleased and actually the
surf was great for us novices and we spent the next three hours in the water catching
waves.
Later that afternoon we went to a ‘rock slide’ a little out of town. It
was a river flowing over a naturally occuring large smooth surface of rock. We
bought some old tyres from a mechanic who blew them up for us and we tubed down
the slide. It was really fun but not an entirely smooth ride. Unfortunately the pool of water at the bottom was also pretty stagnant and full of algae. It was recommended as one of 'Gizzy's' highlights but in a small seaside town with not too much to do, we think it may have been a little overrated!
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| At the top of the rock slide on my tyre |
The next morning
we surfed again for another three hours. Something seemed to click and suddenly
I was able to stand up every time – I loved it! Already able to stand up Mike
was also getting better and better, getting some of the bigger waves and
actually starting to look like a surfer going sideways down the waves. We
managed to find some nice little freedom camping spots along the beach and were
able to wake up to the sun rising over the sea and the sound of the waves....it was just perfect.
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| Surfing beach at Gisborne |
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Getting ready to surf - we also could freedom
camp at this amazing spot |
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| Sunset from our camping spot |
The
biggest drama that occurred in Gisborne was that I managed to misplace our
‘kitty’. Having each just topped up the kitty it had about $500 (£250) at the time!!We
turned the camper upside down and when we couldn’t find it I knew it must have
fallen out in the cinema. We went back but no one had handed it in and an
afternoon film was on so we couldn’t check. The cleaner also hadn’t seen it so
I didn’t like my chances. We returned once again and as only one lady was
watching the film the owner gave us a big torch and said we could sneak in and
have a look. I crawled along the floor of the isle where we had been sitting
and saw nothing. Then, just as I was about to leave I noticed a little flash of
red…it was the red key ring fixed to the otherwise completely black little
leather purse. I couldn’t believe it! It had wedged itself between the two
seats and amazingly all the money was still in it!! Needless to say from then
on we didn’t carry all the money in one purse.
Without any freedom camping options in
Wellington we stayed in a Campervan park/Car park in the city centre. Quite
random to be literally in a car park in the middle of town with people working past going to work, but with hot showers
and power we had no complaints. We were also walking distance to all the shops
and bars. It was my dad’s birthday the day we arrived in Wellington so after a
long chat on skype we set off to ‘The Library’ a local cocktail bar. The town
was quite quiet and we soon found out that it was because the following day was
the premier of ‘The Hobbit’ in town so all the parties were happening then.
Unfortunately we had already booked our ferry out of Wellington to the South
island the next morning so we missed all the celebrations and celebrities!
We continued further south towards Napier a
town famous for its art deco buildings. We had intended to get there in time
for the morning farmers market but as it turns out actually we had the wrong
day. Instead we stopped for huge freshly made fruit ice creams and
cherries, starting a bit of a trend for the rest of the trip. In Napier we
visited three different wineries; Mission Estate, Church Road and Clear View.
We tried several wines at each and started to get our heads around the
different grapes that we like. At Church Road we ordered a cheese board
which was delicious! We also invested in a very nice bottle of 
All in need of a good coffee we headed on to Havelock North! We stopped at a
nice little café and had cakes with our caffeine hit before once again
continuing our drive south, this time towards Wellington.
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