Whakatane

A brief visit into Whakatane before heading to our overnight destination of Ohope. We firstly headed down to the harbour entrance.





With great views over to Whale Island.







And back to the developed harbour area.

Waioeka Gorge

Today's journey took us through one of the most scenic gorges in the country, a 50km stretch between Gisborne and Opotiki. The monument here honours those killed building the road.





This used to be a one lane dirt track until they somehow managed to build a road here.

Gisborne

Another day, another city...this time the most easterly city in the world and the first to see the light, Gisborne. The city is also famous for being Captain Cook's landing spot and there is a statue at the harbour entrance marking the fact.







There is also a statue of "Young Nick" to mark the first sighting of New Zealand by the sailor aboard Endeavour. The beach behind is the main beach in Gisborne.


At the top of Te Poho-o-Rawiri is the lookout back down over the city, firstly down over the Waimata River and the harbour area.






And then Dad and Royston with the main beach in the background.






We stayed in a lovely motel just outside of Gisborne at Wainui Beach, one of New Zealand's most famous surfing beaches, though not much surf today.





The next bay down was Sponge Bay, an area of proposed new development with many sections for sale. Based on the beautiful beaches we have seen here, we are now planning a trip around the whole of the East Cape.

Hawkes Bay Wineries

Whilst in wine country in would be rude not to partake, so this afternoon we visited several wineries to sample their wines. First stop was Mission Estate, the oldest winery in NZ which was originally run by monks. Now it is most famous for its annual concert.




Then onto Ngatarawa to get one of our favourite wines, the Alwyn Chardonnay. We also got to sample some of their new wines which can only be purchased at the cellar door which feature some of the local producers - each wine is selected to go with the relevant produce.


The third winery of the day was one of the newest, Salvare, but they had just won cellar door of the year so we popped in to check out their wines and food produce they had on sale.





The final stop was Trinity Hill where we got to taste some fabulous wines, including a $120 bottle of Syrah - stunning but slightly out of our price range! We headed back to the motel with much emptier wallets and lots of wine boxes!

Napier Art Deco Walk

Napier is famous for its art deco architecture, as the city rebuilt following the 1931 earthquake which devastated the majority of the city. The Daily Telegraph building, now a real estate agent, is one of the most famous buildings.




This building is Napier's finest hotel and the extension mirrors the original art deco so well it is difficult to see which is the add on.





The Masonic was once a hotel, but as with a lot of old buildings, this has now been converted to a bar and restaurant.






Near the waterfront, this fountain was built in 1936, and lights up at night.






The bronze statue is of Pania, who according to Maori legend was lured out to sea and when she tried to return she was transformed into the Pania Reef which lies off shore.

Arrival in Napier

Leg two of the tiki tour and we are in Napier. On route we stopped off in Te Mata to visit the winery and the cheese shop - making purchases from both.





First stop in Napier was the Bluff Hill lookout with views down to the port.






We then looked at the regeneration of the harbour with a lot of the old warehouses now converted to bars and apartments. This was our first look at some art deco architecture, now a bar.





This is the view from the motel, the monument represents where the sun rose for the millennium.

Telecom Christmas Tree, Wellington

This evening we headed to Frank Kitts park the home of the Telecom Christmas Tree. The lights are constantly changing colour and light up when the children phone Santa from the phone boxes attached.








Telecom have provided waterproof beanbags for people to lie on under the tree, as can be seen in the picture above. Everyone was lying on their backs looking up into the tree.