The clouds were starting to build so no more beach time for us. Breakfast was muffins and coffee with the Maunganui ladies that hike and brunch before leaving this lovely town behind for a 3 hour drive to Gisborne. Lovely scenery for the whole drive but what else is new?
As we got closer to Gisborne, we stopped at Kirkpatrick Vineyard for some wine flights and lunch. The host/owner was clearly preoccupied, not unfriendly but not as friendly as all the kiwis we’ve met so far and we realized later on the reason her mind was probably on other things; it was hot and humid, a storm was brewing, the first rain in the region for a while and the timing couldn’t be worse because the grapes were due to be harvested any day. The rain wouldn’t ruin the crops but it wouldn’t make for a good vintage. Mother Nature has no sympathy for the winos of the world.
With significant rainfall forecast we decided not to camp tonight, especially since the seams on the tent fly have started to disintegrate (note to self: insist that Mike checks the tent for damage before a big trip and don’t believe him when he says it will be fine!) so we booked into our first motel of the trip, wow, a proper bed AND we wouldn’t have to walk across a field to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Once settled in we walked along the waterfront into town. We were not impressed with Gisborne, it’s very industrial and run down and really doesn’t appear to have any character or redeeming features.
Having seen all there was to see (which wasn’t much) we went to the wine center to do some tasting. I overheard the hostess recommending a local fish and chip shop to a group of people so I made a mental note and later on when we decided to have fish and chips for dinner, I told Mike I knew just the place. It was a little out of the way and in the middle of a housing estate that definitely felt very ‘wrong side of the tracks’ but the locals were queuing out the door so we decided to go with it. It was so busy it took 30 minutes to get our take-out and once we had the bounty we drove out to the beach and woofed it down before the big black cloud coming our way started dumping rain on us.
We had massively over ordered and had enough chips for 4, so ignoring the “please don’t feed the birds” signs, Mike fed an entire colony of gulls and ran away before he got pooped on.
It was still quite early so on the way back to the motel we stopped at Sunshine Craft Brewery for a quick pint. It was a cool spot with the bar overlooking the brewery and the beer was good – good beer seems to be a constant occurrence on this holiday!