East Cape Roadie: Day 3 and homeward bound

Firstly, apologise for the large gap between posts. I have been incredibly busy. Sorry.

Anyway, the story continues ...

Today was our last day touring around, so the aim was to reach Opotiki and then drive back along the inland road to Gisboune (route 2). We decided to make the journey more interesting by playing road trip bingo. This was devised by Debs and we each got a card with different things to look out for on the way. The first person to shout out and prove they saw an item on the card could cross it off.

We left Onepoto and continued north and then west. The first stop was a historic Anglican church near to Raukokore. I think it looks very colonial. It stood out due to it’s whiteness against the blue sky, which was quite impressive. The church was located on a rocky outcrop on the shore of Papatea bay. According to the guide book, there use to be a huge whale bone arch outside the church, but it was taken away and is now displayed at Whakatone Museum. To help your pronunciation of this town, in Maori all wh are pronounced as f.

Raukokore Anglican Church.

Raukokore Anglican Church with bay in background

Inside of the church 1

Inside the church 2

We carried along this coastal road passing many quiet, small and isolated beeches. Around 10/11 ish we reached the Pacific Coast Macadamia nut plantation located between Opotiki and Hicks Bay (http://www.macanuts.co.nz/index.cfm). We all had muffin containing Macadamias and I think feta? Can’t quite remember but they were yummy. I bought some honey roasted Macadamia nuts after trying Katrin's, with the aim to post some homeward. Unfortunately, I don’t think they even made it to the end of the trip, they were so yummy. Sorry guys!

A very short distance from the plantation was a small track into the forest to a waterfall. So, we decided to go for a little exploration. Sure enough, after around 10 minutes walking through the bush and over the small stream, we reach the water fall. Katrin and John decided to go for a little swim. Apparently the water was very cold and I was not tempted to join the two of them.

Bush walk

Fern (a plant photo just for Claire. I know how much you like New Zealand flora!)

Waterfall

We got back into the van and journeyed on. We stopped and took a late lunch just before the small town/village of Opotiki. Today was the hottest day we had all weekend. My very white skin was getting scared, so from now on I had it covered up. My opinion, it’s better to be covered and white than burned. We took off again and were soon heading south back down to Gisbourne.

Lunch near Opotiki : The kiwis! (Jan's photo)

Lunch near Opotiki: The internationals! (Jan's photo)

We took one last stop to look at the Tauranga Bridge. This is a “historic” bridge built in 1920s to provide access to the farm land on the other side of the Waioeka gorge. Not long after this the farmers realised how unproductive this land was and abandoned the area. It is now part of the Waioeka Scenic Reserve. Although it sounds a bit boring, it was actually rather pretty. The bridge itself looked substantial but apparently a maximum of only 10 people could go on it. Bearing this in mind, I jumped along the bridge making it shake and wobble from side to side. There were only 5 of us on the bridge, so it was fine!! Honest!

Tauranga Bridge

View up river

View down river

Bridge again

Not sure what we were looking at but I'm sure it was interesting. (Jan's photo)

So we were Gisbourne bound. Prior to our last stop Katrin and John had fallen asleep. John had been doing very well with the bingo and only needed 1 more item to win. So whilst they were sleeping, Jan, Debs and I took advantage of the lack of competition. It proved a profitable period as we all caught John up and I only needed 1 more item ... a logging truck!! These are usually common as the region has a large forest industry, however we neglected the fact that it was Sunday and there where no logging trucks in site!! But I was determined to win (I am a Callard after all!!). I had it all planned out, when I see a logging truck I will calmly point it out and quietly say bingo. However as the miles and time went pass, the hope of finding a truck grew less and less.

At around 5pm we started to head into Gisbourne. Then, in the corner of my eye I saw a large, red, shiny object. I turned, pointed and shouted in the loudest girly scream you can imagine “LOGGING TRUCK”. My plan of being cool failed and the fact I was in the front seat also nearly caused us to crash. But I won with only 10 minutes left of the trip.

We went back to the same campsite we stayed on the first night, put up our tents and ate fish and chips. Our last supper before returning back to wellington.

Jon's got four!! (Jan's photo)

Chips! (Jan's photo)

Boat as you enter/leave Gisbourne (Jan's photo)

It was going to be around an 8 hr drive back to wellington. John was staying behind to help Andy with his field work, so we said our goodbyes and started our trip home rather subdued. We had checked the forecast prior to setting off and knew we were heading towards bad weather. Along our way we stopped for our last lunchtime pie and also acquired a cheese cake from Yummy Mummy cheesecakes in Woodville. I gave it a try but cheesecake really isn’t something I liked. We continued south and then we saw it!! Dark clouds were growing ahead by the hills surrounding wellington. It was like looking at Mordor!! It got darker the closer we got, then came the rain and finally the strong westerly winds. And that was it, the end of our trip away.