Gorges

 After a leisurely breakfast and getting all packed up in Gisborne, we set off towards Rotorua about 11 this morning.  There are three ways to get to Gisborne from the more populated central and western portions of the North Island.  One way is on the road from Taupō to Napier then taking the road up the coast to Gisborne, which is how we drove in.  The second is via Hwy 35 which wraps around the Northeastern coastline, up past Tolaga Bay and on around - this is the longest way and generally the least travelled route.  The third option, which is the route we chose, is on Hwy 2 which travels up into the mountains behind Gisborne and on down through Waioeka Gorge to the town of Opotiki and soon thereafter to the larger town of Whakatāne.

Wow, that is one heck of a road!  The first part of it wasn't anything too wild, but coming down through the Gorge was spectacular, and was a bit hair raising!  As we descended into the gorge the road wound it's way along curves above the gorgeous Waioeka River.  The sides of the gorge were covered in dense forest, and rose more than a thousand feet above the river (the "hills" through which the river cuts are over 3000 feet tall - I'm not sure of the river elevation at that high point but it is certainly quite deep).

I wish I'd been able to capture more images, but there were not a ton of places to stop and take photos - suffice to say it was beautiful.  As it turns out there are a few hikes in the gorge, and the area apparently has great fly fishing though we didn't notice anyone fishing in the parts of the river we could see.

Two pretty big gut checks as Sharyl masterfully navigated the Toyota down the road - one was a section of road work going on, complete with road workers directing traffic and all.  But as we passed by it was hard to not notice that a 50 foot length of the riverside road lane (to about 1/3 of the way in toward the centerline) had fallen off into the river 100 odd feet below.  It would not have been great to be the first car to come upon that little bit of mandatory road repair!  The second encounter was a bit hairier still - we rounded a gradual bend and up in front saw a crane pulling up a large piece of dented metal. As we passed by the dented/smashed in guardrail on the riverside, we noticed guardrail pulled down the sheer hillside toward the river.  Looking back I could see what they were attempting to extract from above the river - a semi-truck which had clearly gone through the guardrail and nearly into the river below.  Sharyl thought that had just happened, but I pointed out that it would have taken a few hours to get the crane up there so it likely was earlier in the morning or maybe yesterday.

In any case, it was all eyes on the road, and as so many signs around New Zealand say "Drive to the conditions".  It was a sunny day, so thankfully there were no worries about slick roads.  

The drive from Gisborne through the Gorge and on toward Whakatāne took us just over 2 1/2 hours.  Just a few minutes before hitting Whakatāne we passed through a nice little beach town called Ōhope where we stopped in at a little cafe called Quay which had been recommended to Sharyl by our friend Keturah.  What an awesome recommendation!  Everything was fantastic, and they serve breakfast all day so Reef was able to dig into a big ol' Belgium Waffle for lunch - which he loved.

From there, we did a quick drive by on our friends Peter and Keturah's house in Whakatāne which is situated right next to a forested area with great views out over the ocean, all a five minute drive from their son Leif's school and the hospital where Peter works . . . pretty sweet.  Unfortunately they are back on Maui so we missed them - but it was great to see where they live.

We were struck by Whakatāne and the area around it - it is really picturesque, has amazing inlets and bays dodging in and out of the coast along with forested hills and valleys peppered around right next to the town.  The town actually won the Most Beautiful Towns and Cities Supreme Award for 2021 - which is something the New Zealand government gives out to cities who do exceptional work on sustainability and beautification projects.

From there we continued on towards Rotorua, passing by three lakes along the way - the most beautiful (as judged from the passenger seat of our car as we drove down the highway) of which was Lake Rotomā. It looked like the kind of lake you'd want to camp on the far banks of with a kayak and a fishing pole for a long weekend.

We eventually pulled into Rotorua, and have now settled into our new Airbnb here.  With clear skies in the forecast and a 50 degree high, tomorrow promises more adventures from the town affectionally known as 'Rotovegas!'