Onward to Gisborne (with a "slight" hiccup)

Sunrise at the East Cape lighthouse with East Island to the left. Originally the lighthouse was on this island.

At 5 AM I (Jan) got up to go back up to the East Cape lighthouse to watch the sunrise. As I was ready to leave, the camper security system clicker would not work – so I climbed out the window so I would not set the alarm off. I hurried up to the top and sat along with 10 other people at the lighthouse in complete silence as we watched the fantastic sunrise unfold. This was really a special moment since this is where the first light of a new day strikes New Zealand and the first lighthouse in the world (Note: The International Dateline is close by). This was truly one of those magical moments with which I have been blessed.

After coming back down to the camper, reality set in. How were we going to get the camper started since we had to turn off the security system via the clicker first? The clicker had gotten wet and even after taking it apart and drying it, it would not work. In trying many things, I then set off the alarm & had to disconnect the battery. So, here we were 20 miles from the nearest small town with a disabled vehicle and no phone. I started walking to the nearest house and no one was there. At the 3rd house (about a kilometer away) I lucked out and a friendly farmer let me use his phone. I called Kendrick Mitchell (the camper’s owner) & what luck – he had a code to disable the security system by turning the key on and off a number of times and watching how many times the little red light blinked. After hanging up, the very helpful farmer even offered to drive me back to the camper. The code worked and we were on our way! Some angel must be watching over us. Even during breakfast before we left, we were blessed with the undulating flute-like chorusing of 3 White-backed Magpie males (of course they were camera shy and we didn’t get a picture of them).

We headed down the coastline to Gisborne (about 190 kilometers away) on our way to Wellington and to the South Island next week. It was a beautiful day, the scenery was great, the trip was uneventful once we left East Cape, and we ended up in a holiday park right next to a beautiful beach on the Pacific Ocean. What an end to a truly ‘up’ and then ‘down’ and then ‘up’ day.

Mountains on the way to Gisborne


It was a big day at school in Te Araroa – The annual Sports Day.

A beautiful view of the coastline near Gisborne

The largest Pohutukawa Tree [Te Waha-O-Rerekohu] – Over 350 years old – In Te Araroa. At Christmastime this tree displays brilliant red flowers – and is called the Christmas tree.

At first glance they look like penguins, but they are really Pied Shags.