dst. (km) Today 0.0 Trip total ??.? Odometer 2512.5
New Year’s Day, a lazy day of wandering around Gisborne in the 34 °C heat. Julianna decided that the tour wasn’t really what she was after and arranged to leave us here in Gisborne — it can’t be easy to be the third person to a couple on a tour like this, and at ten years younger, she found she wasn’t enjoying our company. There were no bad feelings as we parted, and Phil agreed to drive her back to Rotorua.
In the morning we walked around the town, the parts that were open on New Years Day, and visited the markets and a local musuem. One of the highlights of the museum is that part of the building used to be the wheelhouse of a ship that ran aground in Gisborne harbour — if I remember the story correctly, it was salvaged as part of a dare!
In the afternoon we walked up to Titirangi reserve on the point to the north of the town. While it was stiflingly hot in town, higher up the hill there was a slight breeze blowing, making it bearable, so long as we moved slowly.
The signs at the four or five entrances and parking areas in the park made me laugh. A typical map of the park, showing all the gates, roads and paths — until you looked a little closer. There are four arrows in four separate places, all clearly marked “You Are Here.” Quite a cost-savings for the council, but not very helpful for the tourists!
From the top of the hill there is a magnificent view down the coast of the surf beach — and of the enormous wood-chip stock-pile, all the pine forests we’ve been hearing people complaining about, chipped and ready for shipping to Japan. I guess its better than chipping slow-growing hardwood forests, but nobody we spoke too seemed to have a good word to say for the industry.
Coming back down to earth, and to Gisborne town, we found a restaurant in an old meat-works — The Works is part of Gisborne’s redevelopment of the old industrial docks, and serves some excellent food. Although we stopped in there for a beer in the afternoon, we hadn’t been intending to stay for dinner, but when we headed to the Italian restaurant that our hearts we set on, we found it shut, so it was back across the river for dinner at the Works. Finding things shut turned out to be a common theme on this trip — New Zealand has an almost British reputation for closing on the weekends or public holidays — even businesses that you would think would make the majority of their takings at those times.
Where?
Gisborne (38°S, 178°E)