On Thursday, I said goodbye to Rivka and Richard, and set off on a two day trip around the East Cape. Jutting out into the Pacific, the eastern-most area of the country is also the least visited, populated and accessible. From Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty to Gisborne, there are two roads, SH2 which meanders inland through Waioeka Gorge and SH35 which hugs the coast all the way round the Cape. I split my journey up, travelling from Gisborne through the Gorge to Opotiki and then east along part of SH35 on the first day, and then completing the circle by continuing along the coast back to Gisborne on the second.
The car that I hired was a 1992 Toyota Corolla, but it was an automatic, which I've never driven before. It was very strange at first; not using your left foot and having something else change gear for you. I eventually got used to it, but it still felt odd; either I couldn't trust the car shifting for me or I just prefer to be able to be in full control. Nevertheless, it was easy to drive, especially around the East Cape where the traffic is minimal to say the least. The limit was 100kph, but most people including me were happy to cruise around at 70 or 80 most of the time.
I first headed inland to Opotiki, through Waioeka Gorge. With the road winding below steep slopes covered with rainforest, it makes for an excellent drive and hosts a number of good walks, one of which I did on the way through.
From Opotiki it was on to SH35 and along the coast of the East Cape. The road sticks close to the sea and you begin to see the difference between here and the rest of the North Island. Settlements are few and far between, strung out along several kilometres with few other buildings to focus around. There are a number of schools, the odd small store and a few churches, but little else. The only thing that appears with any consistancy are Marae (meeting houses), reflecting the overwhelming Maori bias in the population on the East Cape. This is where the first canoes landed around 1000 years ago and it's since been a place central to the Maori population.
So I drove on through small hamlets like Te Kaha, stopping to take the odd photo or two. I got to the hostel I had reserved a bed at, Maraehako Bay Retreat, earlier than I thought at 3.30, but it was a really cool place so I didn't mind. Instead of being built like, well, a normal building, it's been constructed like a giant tree house, with four or five levels connected through various stairs and ramps. Like something out of Peter Pan, it had a heavily nautical theme, with rope lining surfaces, a private beach and even free kayak hire.
On Friday I continued on eastwards, first to the Ruakokore, somewhat famous for its picture perfect white clapboard Anglican church. After taking the obligatory photo, I drove through the likes of Waihau Bay and Hick's Bay before coming to Te Araroa, a small village on the tip of the Cape. With more shops than most settlements on SH35, it's also home to the world's largest Pohutukawa (New Zealand's Christmas Tree) and the road to the East Cape lighthouse.
The partly sealed road to the lighthouse is a lengthy 20km, wrapping around several cliffs on its way to the very edge of the Cape. When you get to the car park at the end of the road, it's not that obvious where the path is, but after a bit of backtracking and a 15 minute climb, you stand beside the world's most easterly lighthouse and thus the first to see the light of a new day.
After filling up with petrol at Te Araroa, a novelty in itself with someone else doing the work for you, I headed off eastwards. Within a few minutes, I ran into a traffic jam, although one of a very different kind to that of which I'm used to. Instead of cars blocking up the road ahead, it was a couple of hundred cows, and large ones at that. They don't get out the way as you'd expect either; the bulls stand in front of your car and moo at you until they realise that you're not going anywhere.
After that somewhat comical incident, I stopped in Tikitiki to look at the church. It's here that you find arguably the finest example of a mixture of Christian and Maori artwork in an interior covered in symbols from either culture.
Ruatoria was the next settlement on SH35 and it was there that I stopped for lunch. It's the largest village on the East Cape and I must have been the only non-Maori there, not that anyone seemed to notice or mind.
I then heaeded south via Tokomaru Bay and Anaura Bay to Tolaga Bay. By this time the sunshine had been replaced by ever-darkening clouds, but it didn't put me off going on the Cook's Cove Walkway, a two hour track to the Cove of the same name. It rained lightly on and off, but the views and the scenery was fairly spectacular and made up for the poor weather. Just as I finished the walk, the rain started to get really heavy, and with little else to see I drove from there directly to Gisborne, where I stayed the night at the Flying Nun backpackers.
