Gisborne & Napier

Gisborne is the most eastern city in New-Zealand and therefore the first city in the world to greet the sun every morning. This is also the region where Capitain Cook first sighted land and set foot on New-Zealand for the first time. He named this region Poverty bay because his first landing provided him with nothing more than a bit of fire wood. That was partially his own fault. Not familiar with Maori customs he misinterpreted the traditional welcoming challenge and instead of accepting the peace offer following the challenge he killed a bunch of Maori warriors and made a run for it.

Beside a few monuments to honour Cook and his crew and a sun that comes up way to early to enjoy it there isn't much to see in Gisborne. This is small town New-Zealand and it moves on its own pace. This feeling is stenghtened by the fact that there is a large Maori community in the east cape. 50% of the citizens in Gisborne are of Maori decent, compared to 16% nation wide. Maori like to live in touch with nature and they don't care so much for the rat race of our modern society. Here in the east cape you can see people going to the shops on horseback.

I went for a walk on Taihi hill, once a Maori settlement and now a natural reserve. Maori still live on the base of the hill where there is a beautifully carved Marae (meeting house). It is still in use so I could not take pictures since that is seen as disrespectful. On the hill I had some nice views over the bay and the cliff of 'Young Nick's head'. That cliff is the first piece of New-Zealand spotted by a crew member of Cook, Nicolas Young. Young was the surgeons assistent and he got 5 gallons of rum and the cliff named after him for his discovery.

The day after I went to the local museum, not only because it was a rainy day but also because the museum is free on Mondays. The museum tells the story of the east cape, from its first discovery by Maori tribes to the arrival of the first Europeans. And how both cultures clashed at first but soon lived with, and learned from, eachother. There is also a section of the museum dedicated to the 28th Maori battalion that fought in WOII. Most boys in the battalion were from the east cape.

After Gisborne I headed south to Napier, the main city in the Hawke's bay region. Hawke's bay is the location of New-Zealands biggest natural disaster. In 1931 a massive earthquake struck Napier that flattened the city and moved the entire bay up by 8m. Napier was completely destroyed and the city centre burned for several days. After the earthquake they had to rebuild te city from scratch and they did that in the architectural style of those days, art deco. The region lies in the rain shadow of the Tongariro volcanoes so it's a sunny place with a mild sea breeze. Perfect for growing wine and other fruits and vegetables.

Here in Napier I did my first Woof job. Woofing is a system in which you work 4-6 hours a day in turn for a bed and 3 meals. The jobs mostly consist of farm work, gardening or general jobs around the house. In Napier I lived 4 days with Rosemary and Gary. Rosemary is a busy lady. She goes to a bible study group, does community work, plays the contrabas in almost every ochestra in the wider Napier area and she runs a household with 2 teenagers in it. She can use a bit of help around the house, so in turn for 3 meals and a comfy bed I kept their pool clean, stacked their fire wood, vacuumed their living room and helped with making diner. It's a pretty easy job and every day there is still plenty of time to be a tourist. Rosemary asked me to join here for Thursday morning tea and she considered that as Woofing hours. So I had tea & biscuits on the good porcelain with her and a few old ladies who asked me a lot about Belgium. It was a fun experience. Less fun was that I had to stop smoking for 4 days.

After my Woof hours I still had half a day left for myself. The first day I went for a bike ride along the wineries of Hawke's bay. I slightly underestemated the map I had with me so I ended up riding close to 50km on and old bike that was way to small for me. The worst part of it was that I only got to see 3 wineries and only one of them would let me taste their wines. The second one was closed for a private event and the third one was so posh they wouldn't let me taste anything because they could see by my looks that I wasn't going to buy their expensive wine. The second day I went for a pleasant scroll around the art deco centre of Napier and up Bluff hill. Napier is a beautifull city and almost all the art deco is still intact. My last day in Napier I went to the national aquarium. Not only to see the fish but Rosemary told me they have a Kiwi reserve over there. Kiwi birds are notoriously hard to get a look at. They are going extinct so there aren't many of them in the wild, they are night animals that sleep up to 20 hours a day and they are afraid of light and noise. Seeing one in the wild justends on luck, especially since it's illegal to go out and search for them. Even in captivaty they are hard to get a glimpse of. I had to wait 15 minutes by it's reserve before it would come out. I also got to see a diver hand feeding the fish in the big aquarium. And you can take 'hand feeding' quite literary.

The nicest house in Gisborne. Needs a bit of paint though

Statue of Cook with 'Young Nick's head' in the background

Guess what this guys hobby is

New-Zealands countryside between Gisborne and Napier

One of the many wineries around Napier

The youngest cathedral I've ever seen. It has 14th century nails in it, all the rest dates back to 1965

 

 

 

Art Deco in Napier

 

I know an oxymoron when I see one

 

The kiwi bird, bad picture because no flash allowed (kiwi's don't like light)

Dead kiwi bird, they don't mind light

Diver hand feeding the fish