As you can see, the little Mazda has acquired a name! It doesn’t leave a silver trail, but there are other similarities! We found out why..they’ve only given the poor little thing a 1300 engine..not so good with a body the size of an Astra! It goes uphill about the same speed as a Land Rover, but without the street cred or the grunt! The cry of ”come on Slug” can be heard through the mountain roads, and the squeaking of springs as we bounce up and down to get more traction in true hill climb fashion! To be realistic the last bit was a bit unfair, although “Come on Slug” and “You can do it” as one of Rev W J Awdrey’s(?) engines would say, can be heard as we drive along the scenic routes.
So, where did the wheels go turning? We wanted to explore what’s known as the East Cape route. It’s 500km round the East Cape...beautiful coast for 2/3 and an amazing river gorge for the other 1/3. It also goes through large areas of Maori land, and there are several really interesting cultural bits.
Our hostess at the Motel was more than a little concerned that we didn’t understand how far it was! We did, because this bit was planned months ago! So, full tank of fuel on board, lunch in the boot, bear at the ready, and off we went! It was everything we hoped it would be and more. Although the Coromandel had a more spectacular coastline, this had it’s own particular beauty.
We stopped in a couple of really interesting places; one being a very intricately carved Maori meeting house and the other being St Mary’s Anglican church at Tikitiki. On the outside, wooden walls and a tin roof, on the inside a fully functioning Anglican church, but also a beautifully decorated Memorial Chapel for those of the Maori race who fell serving with the Anzac forces. The whole place was filled with intricate carvings, the walls decorated with woven panels; all of which were gifts from the various subtribes. Hopefully the pictures give you a feel of what we saw.
The route runs from Opitiki to Gisborne (where Capt Cook first landed) and then down through the Gorge back to Opitiki. We were blessed with sunshine most of the way round, but also with a thunderstorm as we came through the gorge. Unlike in the UK, as it was quite warm,the cloud base seemed to stay higher than we would have expected and although the rain made taking photos of the gorge a bit pointless, we were still able to get a good view ourselves.
Enough about the scenery! The policeman in Thomas the Tank Engine was very annoyed that Thomas took a train load of trucks to the quayside. The reason being that he didn’t have his wheels covered! Now this was very much the reason that Toby was acquired by the Fat Controller, so that safety could be observed when people and machinery (engines) come together. As you will all be aware and intimately acquainted with railways must be fenced to stop idiots playing on the track and possibly getting injured or killed. Even our Model Engineering society tracks are guarded so that no one can be sued for lack of duty of care! Not so in NZ or in USA in the main, but with only a few trains a day I suppose they can get away with it. Or, do the Kiwi’s have better regard for what is dangerous? They seem to enjoy the adrenalin rush as much as any race but you don’t see them playing “chicken” on the railway!
The Gisborne area has the first real extensive viniculture we’ve seen and also hops... bodes well for the wine and beer. We also saw a vast amount of market garden produce in the deltas made very fertile by rivers and volcanic soil. The farm shops are incredibly good value and there is nothing quite as good as fresh from the land produce.
Much to our hosts relief (she said it reminded her of waiting up for her own children!) we got “home” about 9.30. It would have been at our planned time of 9.00 had it not been for numerous boughts of “seal repairs” as the Kiwis call them – road works, or rather, lack of road works! Their repairs seem to consist of, strip the surface, leave it as gravel track for a few weeks, and then think about getting round to finishing it with a bit of cement! This is always followed by the ubiquitous sign “wash car today”! The trouble is, you get little warning of when these “repairs” are coming up other than a temporary 30kph sign as the road words start, which means you normally hit the first piece of gravel at about 50 mph. As you can imagine, this proves interesting especially when you realise that braking hard then is not really an option! Even worse on a motorcycle or push bike. How fast do you cycle, Ron?!
Tomorrow we’re off to Rotorua, in the mountains...and their promising thunder storms...Hey ho!
So, where did the wheels go turning? We wanted to explore what’s known as the East Cape route. It’s 500km round the East Cape...beautiful coast for 2/3 and an amazing river gorge for the other 1/3. It also goes through large areas of Maori land, and there are several really interesting cultural bits.
Our hostess at the Motel was more than a little concerned that we didn’t understand how far it was! We did, because this bit was planned months ago! So, full tank of fuel on board, lunch in the boot, bear at the ready, and off we went! It was everything we hoped it would be and more. Although the Coromandel had a more spectacular coastline, this had it’s own particular beauty.
We stopped in a couple of really interesting places; one being a very intricately carved Maori meeting house and the other being St Mary’s Anglican church at Tikitiki. On the outside, wooden walls and a tin roof, on the inside a fully functioning Anglican church, but also a beautifully decorated Memorial Chapel for those of the Maori race who fell serving with the Anzac forces. The whole place was filled with intricate carvings, the walls decorated with woven panels; all of which were gifts from the various subtribes. Hopefully the pictures give you a feel of what we saw.
The route runs from Opitiki to Gisborne (where Capt Cook first landed) and then down through the Gorge back to Opitiki. We were blessed with sunshine most of the way round, but also with a thunderstorm as we came through the gorge. Unlike in the UK, as it was quite warm,the cloud base seemed to stay higher than we would have expected and although the rain made taking photos of the gorge a bit pointless, we were still able to get a good view ourselves.
Enough about the scenery! The policeman in Thomas the Tank Engine was very annoyed that Thomas took a train load of trucks to the quayside. The reason being that he didn’t have his wheels covered! Now this was very much the reason that Toby was acquired by the Fat Controller, so that safety could be observed when people and machinery (engines) come together. As you will all be aware and intimately acquainted with railways must be fenced to stop idiots playing on the track and possibly getting injured or killed. Even our Model Engineering society tracks are guarded so that no one can be sued for lack of duty of care! Not so in NZ or in USA in the main, but with only a few trains a day I suppose they can get away with it. Or, do the Kiwi’s have better regard for what is dangerous? They seem to enjoy the adrenalin rush as much as any race but you don’t see them playing “chicken” on the railway!
The Gisborne area has the first real extensive viniculture we’ve seen and also hops... bodes well for the wine and beer. We also saw a vast amount of market garden produce in the deltas made very fertile by rivers and volcanic soil. The farm shops are incredibly good value and there is nothing quite as good as fresh from the land produce.
Much to our hosts relief (she said it reminded her of waiting up for her own children!) we got “home” about 9.30. It would have been at our planned time of 9.00 had it not been for numerous boughts of “seal repairs” as the Kiwis call them – road works, or rather, lack of road works! Their repairs seem to consist of, strip the surface, leave it as gravel track for a few weeks, and then think about getting round to finishing it with a bit of cement! This is always followed by the ubiquitous sign “wash car today”! The trouble is, you get little warning of when these “repairs” are coming up other than a temporary 30kph sign as the road words start, which means you normally hit the first piece of gravel at about 50 mph. As you can imagine, this proves interesting especially when you realise that braking hard then is not really an option! Even worse on a motorcycle or push bike. How fast do you cycle, Ron?!
Tomorrow we’re off to Rotorua, in the mountains...and their promising thunder storms...Hey ho!
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