The Very First Dawn

I'm awake this morning before the alarm goes off and spend the next hour dragging myself into a state of alertness with loads of coffee and tea, packing and fussing. I must get to the outer East Cape by 06:44am (Sunrise) if I want to see the first moments of the new dawn rising over the Pacific's eastern horizon.

I say my goodbyes to the charming Dutch couple next door (they're up early too - for a different reason); fire-up the Trannie with the aid of a little choke; and zoom-off into the semi darkness towards the Cape, which is eastwards some 22 km (13¾ miles) away.

Through and past Te Araroa - I soon hit gravel. There's an eerie silence along the way? Not a sound, not even a bird singing .. just the constantly reliable purr of a my Honda's V-twin power pack; the soft crunch of new tyres on the dry dusty white stones beneath my feet, and the lapping of toddler waves along the shoreline immediately to my left.

Well, I arrive just in time; turn my wheels around to face the way I came and park-up. It's still pre-dawn time at the Cape.

With no one else at all around - not a sole, just me all alone - I see the very first rays of sun rising above the horizon's distant low-lying altostratus, just to the north of Whangaokeno (East) Island.

I am indeed the very first person in the whole of the western civilised world to see the sunshine.

So just take note and remember this, whoever you are - and wherever you are .. anywhere around the planet ...

.. All SIX BILLION of yuz:

On Friday morning, 23rd February 2007, you saw the sunrise AFTER Stanley Keef'ooper did. Cuz I was the first one in the whole wide world. The No. 1. The very, very first .. :o)

I s'pose the view might have been even more spectacular .. maybe .. if I had climbed up to the top of this hill and stood by the unmanned East Cape Lighthouse. But at several hundred feet up .. along and up and up a slippery ol' goat track? ...

.. Well, all I can say is .. 'Bollocks .. to that idea!'

Job done. Time to head on back westward down the track

Shortly after passing through Te Araroa I turn left onto SH35 again and head off towards the coastal City of Gisborne, situated about 165 km (103 miles) to the south.

After a further 56 km (35 miles) I fill-up the bike's rapidly drying-out petrol tank at the first opportunity with lead-free 91 octane .. as there isn't any 95 or 98 available out here.

Past Tokomaru Bay .. and

.. Tolaga Bay

With some extra good video footage taken along the way southwards, I arrive in Gisborne around 11:30am. I could, of course, go-on much further south, as there is still plenty of time left in the day.

But I've been awake since 04:30 this morning, and there is still nearly four whole days remaining until I need to catch the 0:830am ferry from Wellington back to South Island next Tuesday morning, 27th February.

So there's no rush. I shall, therefore, stay in Gisborne for the rest of the day .. and indeed spend the night here as well.

I quickly find a motor camp that can and will provide me with entirely adequate self-contained en suite 'cabin' type accommodation for just 50 bucks (£18) for the night. Life is good in the sunshine, of which Gisborne has plenty .. and after all ...

.. I'm still on my 'summer holidays' .. :o)

Dim but Nice

Thursday, February 22nd

I leave Whakatane at bang-on 10:00am and make my way around the Wainui coast road via Ohope - where Ellen and I last stayed when we were last in the area on January 4th - for 34 km (21 miles) until I reach Opotiki township, where I spend two hours in a cyber café updating my blog. Then it's time for a diet coke and steak lunch, followed by a top-up for the also thirsty gas tank, before heading out of town on SH35 for the village of Te Araroa, which is the last and nearest populated locality before reaching the East Cape.

The weather is overcast and therefore any decent pictures today will be at a premium. But here's looking across Omaio Bay towards Te Kaha Point, with Okahu Pt in the foreground. About midway of today's total travel of 192 km (120 miles)

There are a hellofa lot of horses and ponies around this region - more than I've seen anywhere else in New Zealand.

Te Kaha Point from a closer perspective

From Whangaparaoa to Hicks Bay, SH35 takes me slightly inland from the coastline along highway contained from the sea by a mountain ridge (called the Wharekahika Range perhaps?) where overhead the clouds are grey and heavy with rain. I cop for some of it, but it's never that bad that I get soaked through.

Looking back across Waihau Bay from Orete Point; nearly three-quarters of the way there now

Back onto the coastline now, and there's an instant improvement in the weather.

My first glimpse of the East Cape headland comes into view.

By around five o'clock I finally arrive at Te Araroa, ride to the far side of the little township and look back westwards to see the sun struggling to burst through the low-lying nimbo cumulus

If the local natives don't eat you ... then they'll try and poison you instead! .. :o(