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| Passing scenery while driving up the east cost of the North Island |
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| Picnic time! |
We left Napier and started driving up the east coast with the goal of making it to the halfway point of the East Cape. The east coast isn't traveled very much - there aren't any big tourist attractions besides the scenery and most of the land is Maori. We were constantly reminded of this fact by the big signs staked all over the place stating "This is Maori land!" Land issues cause huge disagreements between Kiwis and Maoris.
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| Driving to the trail head of the lighthouse on a very stormy morning |
The scenery along the way, however, was great and it reminded me of driving highway 101 on the west coast of the States. The meandering scenic road that follows the eastern coastline is called the Pacific Coast Highway. The towns are so small along the way that most don't even offer gas or much to eat - we were told to stock up before we left.
We had good weather during our first day of driving and enjoyed stopping for a picnic lunch at a beach and then stayed in a little basic cabin in Te Aroroa. Unfortunately, we had torrential rains during our second day of driving and could barely see the road ahead of us much less the passing scenery.
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| Camping out in the middle of nowhere |
The morning of the second day we hiked up to the East Cape lighthouse - supposedly the most eastern lighthouse in the world and the first place on the mainland to see the sun rise. There was no sunrise this morning, only plenty of rain and clouds. We barely made it back down to the car before the rain started to come.
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| More picnics! |
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| Bliss |
The rain kept up until about lunchtime when we stopped for another picnic on the coast. Our drive then took us inland where we were sleeping for the night at a home stay on a little farm. We were quite happy to be warm and dry and not camping and having to boil water.
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