December 11, 2008

First, HAppy Belated Birthday Grandma Milly!!

We left Taupo on the 8th and headed East towards Napier. The drive isn't that far, but it's very rural and as we discovered...very few gas stations. Yes, we ran out of gas. We had just passed a motor camp down the road about 1 km, so we decided to walk back and ask for help. Unfortunately that meant walking back over a bridge that, when we got there, was very high and had no sidewalks or any space other than the lanes the cars were flying through. There was a walkway under the bridge, but again, did I mention the very high part? Oh, and there was caution tape around the entrance to the walkway. I told the boys that I would stand up on the hill and yell down when there was a break in the cars and they could just book it across. But they were anti that idea and for good reason. So we called AA (the New Zealand form of AAA). And for a NZ$160 membership they would send a guy out with NZ$20 of petroel. An hour later a guy called asking where we were and I told him (as I had told the AA lady two times) and he said they sent him up the wrong highway. So, AA called me again to verify where I was and then said another man had been dispatched up the right highway. A little over another hour later we had NZ$20 worth of gas and we were on our way to Napier. And we weren't that far from the city which was the kicker of it. 

So we got into Napier much later than expected, found the one place that was still open and got some food. And Napier is a confusing city. The streets go all which ways. But there was a pretty little park with nice gardens and fun architecture. 

We parked next to the park and spent the night in the van. The next morning we actually got showers at the pay bathroom. It was interesting to see all of these vans and cars come out of the woodwork to park outside this bathroom and people lining up to take showers that had been sleeping in vans. We had seen one of these, and used it in the first week or so of our trip, but we hadn't seen one since. Every information center (I-site) should have one. They are really nice and you don't feel gross and stinky the next day. 

We drove up the hill to look out over the bay and the city of Napier. Unfortunately this amazing view looked out over a logging yard and a shiping depot out on the bay, so it wasn't as nice as we had hoped, but it was still worth seeing. 

We then headed a bit south to Hastings, Napier's nearby sister. There we decided to wine tasting and exploring. The wines were good. It was intersting that it is such a booming wine region, but it's only been growing vines for about 25 years. Insane. The man who decided to plop a grape in the ground there is one lucky man. 

That night we were supposed to head all the way up to Gisborne, but it seemed really far. The day kept getting later and later, but we made it. We drove up some steep mountains along the way and saw some spectacular views. Late at night we pulled into Gisborne, North of Napier and closer to the East Cape. Our friends had warned us to be careful in the East Cape (aka "The wop-wops" because it's so far out in the middle of nowhere) and that the people were not as friendly and it was a bit more dangerous. And driving into Gisborne, we felt it. It wasn't the nicest looking city and it was very dark and had a slightly deserted feel. We drove a little ways out of town and parked by the beach. Ari passed out quick, but Mitch and I stayed up for a bit hearing cans moving and all sorts of weird things. The next morning I woke up and there was a man with his car backed up close to an underpass (which we had not seen in the dark the night before) and he was fishing through a pile of stuff that had a small futon-like mattress and a box of empty beer cans (which explained a lot). Then later I saw him walking around, then he got in his trunk. Then he sat in his car a bit. At this point the boys were up too and we just watched him. All of a sudden he got a small bucket out of his trunk and walked away under the overpass and out of sight. About 15 minutes later he appeared again. With a horse. Very odd. Then he got into a little pool area that was dammed up by the beach sand. And he seemed to be bathing the horse in the pool. Then he tried to get on the horse, but the horse didn't like that. It was all just way to weird. But then he got out and disappeared again and we decided to pack up and get back into town. In the daylight it wasn't so bad, but we had a long drive ahead of us and decided to just keep going up over to the East Cape. The drive was very nice, but very long. but we made it. We stopped along the way to walk out to an overlook over cook's cove and walked down into a little bay where Captain Cook first landed. 

When we got to the East Cape we drove out to the very tip where the lighthouse is and parked for the night. We were there next to two other cars with four germans traveling together. They were nice and fun to talk to. But this was Tuesday night and we needed to get to sleep early because Wednesday was going to be a very important day and we had to be awake very early.

Now, before I tell you about Wednesday and why we had to be up so early and all else, I have to tell you a couple stories. 

We've been spending a lot of time in the car. A LOT of time. Hours long of driving. So, we've been having some crazy discussions. And we've been seeing a lot of animals.

An example would be this: 

Alissa: PIGS!!!

Mitch: Those are cows.

Alissa: Well, from far away they looked small and fat like pigs.

5 minutes later:

Mitch: goat!

Ari: Those are cows!

Mitch: No, there's a goat in the middle of all those cows!

Ari: Oh! Where?? I don't see it!!

Alissa: EMU!!!

Mitch: NO! Cows!!

Alissa: NO!! STOP THE CAR!!! EMU!!!!! (pointing)

And Ari slammed on the brakes before he slammed into the family of Emu trying to cross the road while we are staring out the window trying to decide if cows are really cows. 

Then we were playing 7 degrees of separation. NZ$10 to anyone who can connect Renee Zellweger and Ryan Phillippe through only movies. We spent hours on it and still haven't been able to do it. AND YOU CAN'T USE THE INTERNET! THAT'S CHEATING!!

Okay, so back to Wednesday. Wednesday morning we woke up at 4:30am. And we hiked a very steep hill up to the summit to the lighthouse and watched the very first sunrise for Wednesday that the entire world will every see. The East Cape is the furthest East point. Someone said that there is another populated island way out there somewhere. But I it's just an island, so we pretend it doesn't exist. So, on Wednesday, the day we move into our new house, we got up to see the first sunrise anyone in the world will see. I thought rather poignant and important to do on the day we move into our new house and start a new step in our adventure. So, we sat in the rain and cloudyness watching the sky turn from dark to light, looking out over the expansive sea. Then we headed out. We made it to the next town hoping for gas, but as we pulled in, all the gas signs were crossed out. I started to panic. Here we go again...another out in the middle of nowhere and we've got no gas. And it was still only 7am and no one was up and about yet. Luckily the general store had a sign on the door with the nearest gas station. Continuing on, the next town was 50kms away. We probably had about 100kms left of gas. So, we were determined to continue on and hope that they weren't out of gas too. We made it and pulled up to two old, beat-up pumps that had to be hand-pumped and a little old man came slowly walking towards the car to fill us up. And we continued on our drive. We made it through Opanoni with some of the most gorgeous beaches. Then we went on the Whakatane. We were all tired, but I insisted that we walk around a bit and explore this rather important little town. See, not far is White Island. An active volcano. And not just that, but Whakatane is an important place for women's position in the Maori culture. See, way back when, the women were not allowed to travel in Waka Amas, the war canoes. And the men had pulled this huge fancy canoe up onto the beach and then left the women on the shore to go hunting. But as the men were gone, the tide began to come in and the Waka Ama began to slip out to see. The women saw that it was very far out and if they waited any longer, it would be too far out for the men to ever go out and retrieve it. So, the women jumped into their canoes and saw out to get it, but they were afraid they would be in trouble for rowing it themselves. So, one woman said "Whakatane!" 'Whaka' means 'be like' or 'to resemble' and 'tane' is 'man'. So she encouraged them to draw strength and to stand up as a man would and row it back to shore. And they did. It was the first time a woman ever paddled a waka ama and it showed the men that they were capable of such things without offending or destroying it. So we saw a sculpture of the woman and we saw a cave where they slept and we saw an amazing waterfall. See, the town is set into this little bay and surrounded by cliffs, so the canoe was extremely important for travelling and defending the land. 

Then we continued on the Mt. Maunganui. We putzed around a bit and then we met with Sharyn and turned over the rest of our money in return for some keys and a garage door remote! :) And we moved in!!!

Then we went to drop Ari off to do work at the internet place. And Mitch and I went to the Wharehouse. :)

We bought a fake christmas tree, a tree topper, a dvd player, movies, and anything else we thought we really needed. :) We aRE SO excited!!!!

This morning we all got up really early and hiked up the Mount. It was SO cool!! And beautiful! But very hard. I'm really out of shape. But that's going to be the focus of the next 5 months. We are going to active and energetic and live it up! :)

The boys bought bikes today. I'm going to look at one tomorrow. And tomorrow the boys are going to play around with surfboards and pick one to buy. Things here are relatively cheap, so we're stoked. Now I just have to find a job...we'll see how that goes. 

Anyway, we are very very very very very excited!

People are already booking to come out. I am going to try and make a calendar, but so you know so far...

Kelly B. and Williams are coming May 15thish for a week.

My mom is coming in March for a couple weeks, I believe.

I think Ari's family is coming in February. 

Let us know if and when you want to come so that we can put you on the calendar!!

I'll put more definite details as I get them and that way we don't double-book people!! :)

We do have a third bedroom, so keep that in mind! :)

I miss everyone lots and lots!!!

XOXO

WAFFLES!!!

Alissa