Gisborne District, Day Two - In Which I Procure a Large Stick

Gisborne

Renie's Petite Cafe, run by (I think) Russians, provided an excellent Russian Blintz filled with Nutella, which was sort of like a crepe. We also acquired a caramel slice which we saved for later. We then walked around the Saturday farmers market, where we purchased strawberries and freshly squeezed orange juice. 

Tolaga Bay

Heading north from Gisborne, we stopped at the historic wharf at Tolaga Bay. New Zealand's longest wharf at 600 meters, it was built in the 1920's because the bay is shallow and in the early 20th century the easiest way to access the town was by boat. 

Parts of the wharf have been renovated, like his section shown here (though which you can see a boat being put back on its trailer after a morning out at sea). 

There is a walking trail here out to Cook's Cove. It takes 2 1/2 hours return, so we just went to the lookout platform which takes twenty minutes one way. The trail is through a sheep paddock so we were dodging stepping in poos up the track. The lookout is 120m above sea level. 

Tolaga Bay from above. From here the country's longest wharf looks like part of a child's Lego set. 

The paddock we walked through (and my sweet walking stick). Fun fact: this walking trail is closed off to visitors during the lambing season. After our walk, we tucked into the caramel slice in the heat of our car (Albi's air conditioning no longer functions).

Anaura Bay

Further up the coast is the well kept secret of Anaura Bay. A beautiful beach that hardly anyone goes to, we spent a fair bit of the afternoon here lounging on our picnic blanket in the sun, reading and napping. 

There is a campground literally 2 metres from the beach, just out of the scope of this photo. It would be lovely to stay there and wander onto the beach any old time you feel like it. 

Luckily it was a bit cloudy so we didn't overheat, but I still got hot enough to want to put my feet in the sea. Yannick went for a swim as he does at the tiniest of opportunities.

Heading back to Gisborne, we decided to go on a walk around the river to Kaiti Hill which overlooks Cook's first landing site. Though after our earlier walk, we were tired and only went a little way up. 

Also, I didn't have a great walking stick to help me up that hill.