Thursday, February 22ndI 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 perspectiveFrom 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(
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