What a night! It rained all night and when it woke me I saw the fridge display flashing, thinking the gas had blown out I reset it, but on the third time I switched it off suspecting that the gas had run out. I was correct and this morning, in the rain, Michael had to change to the bbq/emergency gas bottle before we could have our morning cuppa.
After breakfast we packed up and set off down the road to look at an old wharf, and ruins of a freezing factory.
The view of the old wharf!!!
Then we were back up the road to the village where we were able to swap our gas bottle at the village store. Whilst waiting I was interested to see that all the signs in the shop were in the Maori language, not one in English!
We left Tokomaru at circa 9.45 to drive up and down over the mass of land that is the Eastland/East Cape, from the east coast to the north coast. We arrived in Te Aroroa at 11.0 ish and made ourselves a coffee. The road to the East Cape lighthouse leaves from here and we set off following the ‘road’ round the cliffs. However it soon deteriorated into a muddy gravel road. We had seen warning signs about forest harvesting and I had visions of meeting a huge logging truck, as we had seen them again this morning. We turned around at the first suitable spot, it was still raining and the cloud was well down, so there didn’t seem much point in driving 20km out to the lighthouse and 20km back. However the short foray resulted in a photo of a road sign we have not seen before.
We carried on round to Hicks Bay where, apparently there is another ruined wharf, but we didn’t find that one!! At one time this area must have been a hive of industry working for the export of produce from the local farms/stations.
We drove onto to Waihau Bay where we made our lunch. It was raining again by this time having stopped for three quarters of an hour between 12.30 and 1.15!!
The first Maori canoes landed close to here in 1350 and we very much feel that we are in Maori country. The settlements are small with a cluster of houses on a few streets with a village shop. Some villages have a school.
Lunchtime was decision time....how far to go today.....and we decided to drive a further 20km to Maraehau Bay campsite which has a good reputation for location.
On the way we stopped to look at a historic church, of which there are quite a few in this area, it was prominently located on a piece of land jutting out toward the sea and was beautifully maintained.
We arrived at the campsite at around 2.30, it is a lovely spot, but expensive for very basic facilities. Michael had a quick swim in the sea and a dip in the river at the side of the beach, I read my book!
We really have been in the wilds for the last two days, no cellphone and no Wi-fi, which wouldn’t matter except that I planned to call our host for tomorrow! Hopefully we will pick up a signal fairly early in the mrong morning to make the arrangements!
Weathers: wet, max temp 17C
Total km 178
This is the second time I have written this blog I am still struggling with this ActivePro blogging app!!
No comments:
Post a Comment