On the Road to Gisborne

John and Iris with their Christmas Tree

The sun is shining brightly the next morning and though it is a little too cool to eat on the verandah, we enjoy another stellar breakfast with the glass patio doors open wide to let in a slight breeze. After breakfast we visit John’s Art Loft Studio above the garage. Their entire house is filled with original works of art and beautiful decorative items, including seasonal Christmas ones. They’ve done their utmost to get us in the mood for the impending holiday. In fact their house shows the first signs of Christmas we’ve seen in our accommodation on this trip. They’ve played Christmas carols on their iPod throughout our stay, and John even practised some tunes on his bagpipes in preparation for an upcoming local concert. We’re doing our best but it still seems unreal - Christmas in the summertime.

John in his Studio

Up in John’s studio we admire his paintings and Iris’s photos of their travels. Yesterday we enjoyed viewing more of her work including photos of their most recent trip to the western USA and two books she created on the computer with My Publisher. John is currently working on a commission for some American friends from the Pacific Northwest who arrive next week. We reluctantly say our goodbyes and shop for lunch and dinner in Havelock E. before heading to the Gisborne area where we will stay in a “bach” at Wainui Beach. We’re sure the shops in this “fruit orchard of NZ” will provide a wider selection of gourmet items.

Duncan is navigating more twists and turns, on another New Zealand “scenic drive” while I attempt to blog looking straight ahead to avoid nausea. Touch typing was the best class I took in high school. I can look at the road and type at the same time. There may be a few more typos than usual though.

Our prebooked accommodation at Wainui Beach in a “bach” has fallen through. This is the first time we’ve been disappointed after travelling for a total of six months in the South. The man who agreed to rent us his bach for the night has tenants in it. He manages the Gisborne Youth Hostel and agrees to put us up there, but like staying in mountain huts when hiking,  hostels were for younger days. To be fair he offers to pay for a motel for the night so we head to the Ocean Beach Motel in Wainui. This is our first NZ motel experience, and this appears to be the only game in town in this hamlet. It has all “mod cons”, and we can do our laundry so we’re not complaining. We walk to the exquisite beach, and Duncan asks if those are sharks he sees in a line in the distance. “No, those are NZ surfers in their wetsuits!” I reply. The ocean is colder here than in Australia and Hawaii so we don’t see the brightly decorated board shorts so popular in the other venues.

This beach is the first to “see the sunrise” in the world and is the site of the Wines and Vines Concert on New Year’s Eve when the town swells from several hundred to up to 25,000 people for the all night party. The girl in the tourist information office told us that some organization  rated it as the second best New Year’s Eve party in the world after Paris! Looking around in Gisborne we wonder who was doing the rating.

We set the alarm to see the sunrise on the advice of the receptionist in the motel, but alas it’s raining in the morning so we go back to bed. Too bad.