Monday 27th April

Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sunrise and although I wake early I resisted the temptation to get out of bed that early too see it! Breakfast this morning was made in the large shared, but very clean, kitchen where others were also preparing their own breakfasts.

There are 2 beaches in Gisborne - Katai Beach where Cook landed and Waikanae Beach (the same name as Terry’s home town down on the Kapiti Coast) which is a very large bay lined with Nofolk Island Pines and other trees and has a wonderful backdrop of mountains.

After an early start we left the hostel to go to Waikanae Beach to see the statues of Captain Cook and ‘Young Nick‘ - (Nicholas Young, who was Captain Cook‘s cabin boy and who was the first person on board HM Bark ‘Endeavour‘ to sight New Zealand) - it got too dark to see them yesterday evening.

It gets dark around 6pm here and darkness falls very quickly.
Gisborne is a very nice town with wide palm tree lined streets and has a real ‘holiday’ feel to it. Both beaches here, especially Waikanae Beach, are very popular with surfers. The weather has been very warm for an autumn day - temperatures in the low to mid 20’s

We finally left Gisborne at around 1030 for Whakatane. Here ‘Wh’ is pronounced ‘F’ so it is pronounced ‘Fock-a-tarnie’ (no comments please!). The distance was just over 200km, about 50km of which was a fabulous drive through the Waioeka Gorge - a twisty road following the Waioeka River which cuts between very high bush covered mountains. The temperature dropped dramatically there and it rained but it was nonetheless quite an experience to drive through.

While here we are staying at the home of a friend of Terry’s - another Judy. But she is not here at the moment as she is visiting her son in Perth, Australia. She is kindly allowing us to stay at her house - a new 2-bed ‘granny annex’ adjoining her daughter’s house. It is right by the sea and in a lovely situation.