Gisborne After The Drive Of Hell

Whose idea was it to drive around the East Cape „to enjoy the authentic landscapes, some Maori sites and just have a really relaxed day“, instead of taking the shortcut aka Highway #2?!?!?

Ok ok, I admit it, it was my stupid idea. But I had good reasons, also known under the name „Macadamia Nuts“. We'll be getting to that bit later.

To cut a long story really short: It was a shitty drive. Nobody ever told us anywhere that about 80% of the route was basically undriveable due to landslides, roadworks (which consisted of a few red cones being put somewhere in the middle of the road to moniker business, yep they've heard of pretence work here too, trust me) and other occurances, which had us down to an average speed of 40 instead of the desired 80 kmh. So instead of having a relaxed drive with a lot of stops along the way, we had to really hurry things in order to make it to Gisborne at a relatively decent time. Thankfully – for us at least – most of the Maori sites were private only anyway, hell they even shut down the complete village where Whale Rider was filmed, totally understandable after being exposed to idiot tourists who have never heard the word „privacy“ before,and basically treated the holy maraes etc like movie sets............. still sad though, because their culture is something I will keep on investigating, because I am so intrigued by it.

Well, to get back to the main reason for taking the detour along the East Cape: We of course stopped at the famous Pacific Coast Macadamia Nut Farm. I had a tub of homemade Macadamia nut & Manuka honey ice cream, whilst Rob was tucking into a homemade Panini with all the usual stuff plus Macadamia pesto. Do I have to say it was simply divine? Needless to say, we bought some of their treats to take home (that is if Rob can hide the bag long enough from me, hehe, but don't tell him yet :p). We took a walk around the property which is actually up for sale, as the owners are due to retire. Anyone fancy to invest 1,6 Mio NZD into a flourishing business that will be nourished by your's truly Dunja & Robert? Seriously, those guys are making a fortune out of a few Macadamia & orange trees.

Right now we're in a really beautiful room in the Portside Hotel in Gisborne which we booked for tonight only, and will be debating later after dinner at the Fettuccine Brothers if we will add another night, or drive through to Napier tomorrow and take a 2 day break there.

Either way, I might upload some pics as well later. I am writing this offline atm, as we haven't bought an internet voucher yet, so we're first off for dinner. Sk sk sk sk.