Gisborne. Day of rest

It was a fairly grey day when we awoke and we had a slow start then left around 1030 for a trip up the coast towards Tolaga Bay where Captain Cook first spotted land in 1769 and where he anchored to replace food and water.It is also the farthest East on the world and it is here they see the sun first

The bay is not so attractive in the grey but in 1920 they built a wharf out into the sea to try and attract passing sea trade and in this they were quite successful. The wharf is about 660 metres long and built of concrete. The largest and longest concrete wharf built in the Southern Hemisphere. Actually it is now falling to pieces but we won’t mention that.

We then went in to the town and had a coffee before heading South and passing the mountains, lakes etc, etc, etc, you have heard it before but it is still beautiful.

It was a nice journey and we ended back at Gisborne and visited Captain Cook’s memorial statue (which is very well done) and also ‘Young Nick’ who was allegedly the one who espied North Island and to whom they have also raised a statue but not as good as the one for Captain Cook.

Gisborne was pretty much closed and so after lunch of an ice cream (double scoop no less) we headed for the supermarket to buy some bits and pieces before heading back to the Motel.

During the past few weeks, we have tried the various Supermarkets for food etc. There are four main brands, Pak’n’Save (a bit like the old Quicksave in the UK cheap and rubbishy), Four Square which is largely franchised stores, some Ok but mostly not with pre-packaged food and limited choice but existent in most small towns, then there is Woolworths, no comment, and finally New World Supermarkets who in our view are by far the best with excellent quality foods, almost Tesco Standards and that is where we tried to shop if we could.

Anyway, Noel cooked the evening meal as usual this evening and the steaks that we bought in the Napier market the previous day were really quite excellent and so a bottle of ‘Oyster Bay’ Merlot accompanied the dinner and went down very well indeed.

TV in this country is a bit rubbish with lots of adverts and it is only SKY Movies that are worth watching providing the film is good otherwise forget the TV. In a number of motels they have DVD players in the rooms and so you can watch a DVD if you like but choice can be limited. We did bring a selection of our own DVD’s but you can only watch them once perhaps twice before you have had enough.

Just before we went to bed we played with the TV channels and came across a documentary on Captain Cook, wow small world.

Tomorrow we are off to Cambridge, near Hamilton, en route for the North, so it should be a nice journey through mountains, lakes, rivers and anything else they can think of. I now understand why the locals drive like hell through the scenery which we stop and gawk at, it is that they have seen it all before and perhaps we are going the same way.