Friday 31st May
It was the queens birthday weekend and we left Auckland after Bhavni and I had finished work at 7pm (we had got most of our stuff sorted the previous evening). Driving down south on the SH1, we forgot to turn on the planed route through Paeroa, so we took our other route (near Morrinsville) skirting Tauranga all the way to near Whakatane. It was a bit late when we hot to the Fenworth B&B just outside the city. The B&B was in a house owned by Wayne and Alison on a farm. We could not see much of the surrounds as it was dark, but we were shown to our room which was in a private wing of the house. It was a lovely appointed room, large with a big en-suite. After freshening up we met with our hosts and talked for a while, before retiring for the night.
Saturday 1st June
Waking up in the morning we had a walk around the house (through the private French doors) taking some pictures of the sun just rising above the horizon over the river – really nice scene. There was also a bit of panic as the interior light in the car had been left on overnight, but luckily the car still started fine.
After getting ready we joined our hosts for a continental breakfast with homemade bread and found out that they actually had no bookings for the next few nights, unlike what travelbug said. So we booked another night for tomorrow, as we really enjoyed the place.
Setting of at around 9am we drove into Whakatane to the White Islands tour office and booked in for our trip. Soon after some fiasco with me putting on my contact lenses (after getting on board and going out again), we were off, past the protector statue in the harbour. The water was meant to be quite choppy on the way, but at least the it was operating as the week before had been quite bad. It was a hour or so journey to to island, which slowly loomed ahead of us. The sun had started to show by this point, so we were in for a reasonable day.
After mooring near the old pier at one of the bays, we were transported to the pier with small dingies, one group at a time. We scrambled alone the old pier and the broken sections to the island proper where we were split into two groups and given a second safety briefing ( don’t climb on the mounds – boiling mud, if an eruption occurs we will hide behind stuff until its safe to move). They had given us hard hats and gas masks
The tour stared going around part of the island, first looking at some of the mounds and hills and talking about the history of the mining there, before seeing some of the larger sulphur formations and the dragon spewing lots of gas all the time. Here the gas mask was really useful as when the wind changed we were engulfed in some of the sulfurous fog and everyone stared coughing. We carried on walking around to the mouth of the main surface vents and looked over the edge (not going past the rock border the guys had put down), trying to catch a glimpse of the lake and the far end crater wall.
After we walked back to the mining buildings stopping at some of the natural streams there and having a feel of the water (and a very small taste). The different streams though only a little apart were completely different. Getting to the buildings and having been given a brief history we were allowed a bit of time to wonder and take photos. Its amazing how some of the old machinery exists in a completely rusted state.
Getting back on board the boat we had a quick sail past some of the coves before heading back to the mainland. We were given a nice lunch – everyone’s was vegetarian and Bhavni had to find out the recipe, before most drifted off to sleep. Getting close to the shore the water calmed down to barely and ripples at all. It looked like something out of a movie. Well we got back around 4pm and disembarked.
Bhavni and I headed to the car and then started out drive down the SH2 to Gisbourne, which was another good 2.5hour trip. It had gotten dark by the time we arrived and we had not booked anywhere here, as it was low season. After driving for a bit we gave up and checked into the Bella Vista motel. The person was nice, but the place was really disappointing after the luxury of the previous night – never mind we were just spending the night. Anyway after cleaning up we went and had food at a Thai restaurant. There only seemed to be one guy serving, but the food and service were not too bad. Getting back to the motel we watched a bit of TV, Bhavni gave her phone a bath and then called it a night.
Sunday 2nd June
It was a beautiful cloudless day and getting up in the morning, we departed reasonably early and headed out on the famous SH35 road which goes around the eastern cape, though we were doing it the way round less people did it. We had a map which told us some of the nice side roads and bays to go to sea, and we had a drive towards a bay which had a picture perfect view from up on the hill overlooking an island. We drove and had a walk around before continuing on our way around the cape. We carried on to Tolaga which was our next stop. This little town was where ships docked on the east cape once and as such had a really long pier, over 500m. We took a walk down the length of it – there were some locals fishing at the end – and just enjoyed the view.
Driving on we saw plenty of other beautiful bays and inlets. We also had a walk around a famous Mouri style church and a look around some old and in disrepair factories (from the time that the area exported items by ship), before driving all the way to Te Araroa, where we stopped and picked up some lunch. We decided to take the east cape road to see the east cape lighthouse and go to the furthest east area. Well the road was a bit interesting – unsealed mostly, windy and with animals wondering across the road. There was also sharp rockfalls on the road to be avoided. Getting there we parked up and had a good look at the lighthouse from ground level – we did not have the day left to do a 3h return trip, before going back the way we came and carrying on around the cape.
Across the other side we had another lot of amazing views and lots more stunning bays. We could see white island clearly for much of the way bellowing steam up into the air. We also realised we would be able to see a nice sunset on this side over the bay of plenty, so as the sun was getting to the horizon we were on the lookout for good places to stop. Luckily we found a brilliant one after debating whether we should turn back to another good place a few minutes before, and we got a lovely sunset.
Ending the east coast highway at Opotiki we got to Whakatane and had dinner there at a Indian restaurant. The food was actually ok, just required some extra spice to give it taste. After dinner we drove to the Fenworth B&B, where we had another nice long chat with the owners with tea and shortbread.
Monday 3rd June
After another peaceful sleep we got up and ready and went for breakfast. Wayne managed to brake his tooth whilst having food, so that was a talking point for a while. We had a discussion about things to do on this bank holiday, including going to the Urawera national park south of us, but in the end we decided to go back to Auckland and planed to stop at the Karanghake gauge for a walk.
It was a chilled drive back, stopping at a town on the way famous for the murals on walls. We had been advised by Wayne and Alison, which place to stop and park at the gorge. We went for the main tunnel walk which was the long short walk there, they had built the tunnel system for mining gold in the gold rushes and the one we walked down was a long tunnel. The last bit of the walk was along the river. We managed to finish the walk well before the sun set which was ideal.
We headed back to Auckland, via pyroah.
8th Saturday
Both of us were off today and it was one of the last days possible to go flying, so we both went. It was quite a nice day and we spent some of the morning talking to Norman and others before sorting out a glider for the both of us. We had quite a nice flight as there were plenty of thermals and the cloudbase was reasonably high, giving Bhavni the chance to take plenty of photos.
19th Wednesday
After work Bhavni and I went north to the Hibiscus coast – Sheilinas house. There we had a nice dinner with them and grants brother and wife who were visiting from Australia before all going to one of the pubs not far from them – we were doing the pub quiz. In the end our team did respectable, coming third out of over 10 teams. We did well on some topics such as Africa.
Friday 21st
Bhavni had finished work so she baked a cake and took it to her hospital in the morning for all the people in her department to eat (and take photos). At lunch time she came to SiteHost during our lunch break and we all had cake there.
Monday 24th
I had invited the guys from work to come over for a bit of a leaving do/get-to-gather at home. Matt and Sonia came first followed by Quentin, Heather and then Nathan. It was quite amusing finding out that Matt had come along this street during the Queens birthday weekend doing his Jahova’s witness rounds. We had prepared some bher, cake and profiter rolls and it was surprising how much was eaten.
Wednesday 26th
I drove home after work (well I got a phone call from Bhavni telling me to come home), as the driver had come to pick up our shipment to the UK. By the time arrived the pallets were out and being loaded – Bhavni had calmed the driver down as we had not wrapped the pallets fully as we would not be able to get them out of the garage. I just helped load and wrap. Soon we said bye to our stuff.
Friday 28th
My last day of work! After finishing of some last stuff in the morning, we were going out for a pub lunch. Bhavni and the other wives/girlfriends turned up around 12 and we all went to Elerslie to the Arms pub. I got a really big leaving card and we spent a couple of hours there having pizza and beer. After we stumbled back to work and there Quentin cut up a big chocolate cake. I left mine for later. I said my final good byes at 5pm and left for home, where we did some sorting out and more packing of our stuff.
Saturday 29th
Today was leaving day. We finished all the packing that was left and spent time cleaning the remaining bits of the house. The carpet cleaner came and did the carpets – he left a bit of a mess, so we had to clean up after him. I returned the keys to Barfoot and came back and started to load the car – we had so much stuff the car soon became full. We had some stuff to throw so we looked for a place to dump it as the bins were meant to be left empty, but that was mostly a fruitless search. When we returned we tried to load the final things and a chinese gentleman came up and asked if we were leaving today, he turned out to be the landlord. We started talking and showed him some of the problems around the house, as more and more of his family turned up. I think he was quite happy with the state of the house as he offered to give references in the future if needed (Not surprising as we cleaned up well and had not damaged anything).
We left and drove north to Sheilinas. It was really nice being able to stay here for the few days we had left. We unloaded the car – including boxes of kitchen items and settled in. I drove to the dive shop and collected Grant. Grants family were all around including a brother from Canada as well as Lisa and the children. We had pizza – cooked in the bbq for dinner.
Sunday 30th
We had a bit of a lie in and after breakfast we went for a walk on the beach not far from the house. The day was nice so we took our time. Getting back to the house we relaxed and packed for a bit before we followed Sheilina to Shakespeare Park, where their family were doing a picnic. We stayed for a while with them before going for a walk to the top of one of the hills (at a lookout point) avoiding the sheep leavings, from here we could see lots of different shore lines, including the city centre in the distance. As it was getting late we met the guys back at the bottom and after a bit of cake and chilling we went back to Sheilina’s house. We had a bit of light food in the evening before retiring for an early night.
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