Phew!

Good morning all. I'm sorry it's been so long - we've been at the mercy of small towns and their kiddie-protection internet filters!

Day 5 cont.

I finished checking out Paeroa and went to pick up Mike. He'd been on a geek extravaganza walk, so I had to drive out of town to pick him up. We went back to the L&P bottle, shot the obligatory photos. had the obligatory drink and left town.

Since it was still fairly early in the day, we decided to push on to Tauranga via Waihi. After about an hour or so, we found a motel just off the main drag in Tauranga, checked in and went for a wander.

We were hoping to find somewhere nice and quiet for dinner, but found that, like most places we've been visiting, the restaurant owners have gotten wise and are charching tourist proces for everything. Bummer. We did end up in a Belgian beer hall (surprise, surprise!) and had a lovely meal, some beer and saome cocktails, thereby adding tot he cocktail menu collection at home.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this... I get a serious reaction to some sun creams, they give me hivey blotchy skin. Not much fun. For the past few days I've been suffering from blotch face, and just wanting to scratch my skin off. Well, so the drama continues. I had VERY itchh face all night, and probably grossed out all the people walking by. Haha.

Day 6: Thursday

We started off by calling our respective Tauranga mates to cxatch up. Mike was meeting with his friend Dave, a train driver and fellow geek, and I was meeting up with Pixie, one of my Ravelry buddies. I made another chemist visit for some powerful anti-itch cream, then went to the Farmers for bargain shopping day! Hurrah!

Pixie and I met up at lunch time, and she took me and her two lads to some yarn shops - we had heaps of fun! Apparently Mike & Dave just spent this time at the pub. I picked up some bargain NZ Naturally yarn and some gorgeous hand-dyed 8ply that I can't wait to use. I got to check out Pixie's stash, and grabbed some funky buttons at the Emporium. This place looked like a $2 shop, but it was full of crafty funky stuff instead of crap.

We drove down to Te Puke and tried to go to the road windsurfing place - but it was shut fdor some corporate event. Corporate bastards. Mike didn''t get to have a turn, so he was a bit sad :( Fortunately, Kiwi 360 was still open, so we got some interesting shots of a big kiwifruit. Good, wholesome geeky fun.

The roadtrip to Whatatane was only slightly interrupted by Adventures in Geek Photography, i.e. Mike getting me to stop the car every few kilometres to take photos of his favourite things. Slightly dramatic, but kinda amusing too. It gets me yarn karma.

Accommodation in Whakatane was at the P&J motel, also the site of the White Island cruises. Dinner was in the local Irish pub, yummy.

Day 7: Friday - White Island Day

Another early start, grr. I had to use some sun cream on my already splotchy face - I figured that splotches would fade, but skin cnacer is the gift that just keeps on giving. Cooked breakfast, mmmmm.....

We wandered down to the pier and hopped on the boat with a group of about 6 other backpack-ish types and set off. The ride to the island took about 90 minutes, and in that time we had a chat to our compadres. It turns out that the couple from Germany had been our next-block neighbours while they lived in Sydney for 6 months! We passed on some pearls of traveling wisdom for the guys who were about to travel to the South Island. We passed through a pod of whales who had fun surfing our bow wave. There was even a few mummy and baby dolphins swimming along! Yuo could actually hear the dolphins singing to each other over the water, it was amazing.

White Island is, basically, an active volcano. We landed, and all I could think was "Yeah, great idea, good thinking 99!", thinking of the Active Volcano part! There are several hot sports and lots of sulphur smell (and some acid rain), but really it's pretty safe. We followed the guide around for a bit, saw the main craters, saw the ruins of the old mining settlement and generall checked things.

The acidic moisture on the island made my skin itch to buggery. We were wearing helmets nad gas masks, and they both itched like hell!

Back on the boat after about 2 hours, and the ride back to shore was lovely - except for the part where the gap between my hat and my shirt left a delightful 2 inch sunburn stripe on my neck :(

On the road again to Opotiki, where accommodation was a cool little motel outside town and dinner was from the choke & puke across the road.

Day 8: Saturday

We spent the morning checking out Opotiki - another small town. The info centre was supposed to have lots on local Maori culture, but the closest we saw was the guy with the Mongrel Mob insignia riding his bike.

We started the day with another chemist visit, and the uber strong skin drugs this time. Our plan was to road trip to Hicks Bay inone day. We took our time, stopped at lots of pretty places, got lots of photos, and had a generally lovely time. There were lots of marae buildings, lots of historical churches, lots of beautiful coves.

We checked into the Hicks Bay motel, where the staff were having their end of year party. Since dinner was limited, we figured we'd rough it and grab food in Te Araroa. The church at Tikitiki was on our list of things to see, and since the next day was a Sunday we travelled out and took some photos late on Saturday. (We didn't get to see Westminister Abbey becuase they had Sunday services or something!?!, so didn't want to get caught again). The church was very beautiful and serene. We roadtripped back to Te Araroa, grabbed some fush & chups and went back to the motel for dinner.

A few words about the motel. From the moment we drove in, it felt kinda weird. The Lonely Planet had said that the place took itself too seriously, and they were right. After dinner, Mike went down to the bar for a drink and everyone stopped talking when he got there. Then he was confronted with a "Who are YOU?" - from the gal who'd checked us in.

All I needed was a watermelon, and it could have been a scene from Dirty Dancing.

Day 9: Sunday

More motel dramas. One of the towels had mud on it, the other left me covered with blue fluff. The toilet was grotty. When we mentioned these things on check-out, the owner guy got REALLY aggressive and tried to tell us that no, it couldn't possibly have been like that, it was never like that, why didn't we come and ask for more towels if it was that bad? (I was nude, idiot!)

We drove down the hill to the local Manuka Oil refinery, where we learned that mister motel's name among the locals is the Troll On The Hill. The refinery was kinda cool - good coffee, good oils, good honey.

We drove out to the East Cape Lighthouse - about 20 km down a gravgel road followed by about a gazillion steps up to the point. Worth it, though - the scenery was fantastic! Then back down the gazillion steps, back to the car, back along the gravel road and to Te Araroa for lunch. We learned more appalling stories about Mr Troll - if you ever go to East Cape, don't stay at the place on the hill. It sucks.

The road down to Gisbourne was pretty uneventful. We stopped briefly in Ruatoria, which wed heard lots about - horses down the main street, don't forget tolock your car as crime is rife, etc. The place was quiet, we only saw other tourist cars.

At Tolaga Bay we walked the length of the historic wharf - it was indeed historic. And long. And raining.

We stopped in Gisbourne for the night, I re-slathered the anti-itch cream on my face, and we went out for dinner. We'd been planning on a posh night out, but, alas, all the nice restaurants seemed to be shut. We ended up in the local Irish pub where Mike's steak was: firstly, stone-cold gravy; then secondly, over-cooked steak. Thanks, microwave! The wine was very good, so we had to keep drinking.

Mike went on a late night adventure to find some yoghurt - we'de been carrying around some raspberris & strawberries since Whakatane and really needed to eat the rest up! - and I relaxed (this is, of course a euphemism for "Was rat-arsed drunk on red wine & bubbly, so fell asleep fully clothed on the bed until Mike came home and helped me get undressed" - but don't tell anyone!)

Day 10: Monday

After wandering about in Gisbourne for a while, checking out the local yarn shop, we road-tripped to Napier. We took our time, stopped for photos, had a dip in the hot springs and generall had a lovely day. We arrived at the Shaw's in the late afternoon, and chilled with Joy & Vic.

Day 11: Tuesday in Napier

I have my potatoes cooking, some shopping to do and about a gazillion messages to reply to, so love to all!

XOXO Helen.