(Back)road trip to Gisborne
Carpooling to a conference in Gisborne was the perfect opportunity for David Coxon to take the road less travelled and see some more of the country.
Leaving Wellington on SH1 we turned off at Hunterville to head cross- country to the Tangiwai Memorial just out of Waiouru on SH49. The run across to Turakina Valley was an easy drive through a rugged and remote landscape on sealed roads, with the tail end of some recent wet weather making for changeable conditions with rain and sunny weather, often at the same time. Very full rivers and a number of slips, especially on the unsealed upper section of the Turakina Valley Rd made for more interesting driving, especially when pulling off the soft shoulder after stopping to let everyone enjoy the spectacularly full waterfalls. While I have done this route several times, it was new to my passengers, making a nice experience for me to see this remote and scenic country through fresh eyes.
Spiral model
We stopped at the Tangiwai Memorial for those who had not seen it before, and then had a café lunch at Ohakune before continuing to Raurimu, where we took a quick walk to see the model of the Raurimu Spiral. It was then a steady run in much lighter traffic than on SH1, up the western side of Lake Taupo and across to Rotorua for the night. We had decided to make our second night’s accommodation at Ohope Beach to give ourselves a good start on the third day’s big trip around East Cape to Gisborne. This meant that our second day was very short, with plenty of time for sightseeing. We ignored the touristy activities in favour of a scenic trip out to the Blue and Green Lakes ( Tikitapu and Lake Rotokakahi), then continued past the Buried Village to the end of Spencer Rd where we found an isolated rest area on the edge of Lake Tarawera at Te Karamea Bay. The calm, mild, sunny weather made for plenty of photographic opportunities and the chance to just sit on a park bench and soak up the tranquillity.
With lunch calling we headed back, stopping at Kotukutuku Bay for a coffee and snack at a café with a fantastic view across the lake, before returning to SH30 for a leisurely run across to Whakatane for a proper lunch and some retail therapy before settling at Ohope Beach for the night.
Highlight of the trip
The final day was to be the main highlight of the trip for me. Although I had done the Motu Safari in 2009, and had covered parts of the East Cape coast on that trip, I had never done the run right around the cape, and I had also never managed to visit Gisborne. So completing this run would mean that I could say that I really had been to all parts of New Zealand. Reaching Opotiki and fuelling up, it was with some excitement that I turned off SH2 onto SH35. I really did not know what to expect, but based on memories from the Motu, I was expecting a fair amount of unsealed road as we got further into our trip. We stopped to enjoy the view and take photos at various bays and scenic lookouts as we worked our way up the coast, including the Anglican church at Raukokore where I had stopped for lunch at the end of my Motu trip, before finally finding a general store, post office and takeaway shop at Waihau Bay where we got toasted sandwiches and drinks to enjoy on their balcony. Sitting overlooking the bay we were commenting on the very different feeling that comes from being in a small, isolated community rather than a big city. One of my very sociable passengers was going to chat to a local teenager, but when we saw he was wearing a gang patch we decided that, like in Wellington, we might be better to keep to ourselves. A chance encounter with a busload of friendlier school children and their minders, returning from a camp, gave us a couple of points of interest to see on the rest of our trip. First up was the giant pohutukawa tree at Te Araroa, estimated at 350 years old. It was amazing to walk among the branches of this tree and see how, despite apparent storm damage over the years, it had just adapted and kept growing.
Lighthouse detour
While at Te Araroa we detoured out to the East Cape lighthouse, our only unsealed road to date. This was an enjoyable scenic trip, however lowering cloud, strong winds and murky weather meant my passengers were not that keen to take the time to climb to the lighthouse itself. As I had been to the lighthouse in much finer weather on my Motu trip, I was happy to give it a miss this time. Returning to SH35 we continued across the top of the cape and down towards Gisborne, stopping at Tolaga Bay for another coffee, and a very bleak, windy and cool visit to our final attraction for the day, the 600m long wharf, which we had been told by the school children was the longest in New Zealand. It was good to get some photos of the wharf before the final inland run through very typical countryside to Gisborne and the end of a full day’s exploring.