Cooks Quarters Bed & Breakfast Gisborne

... Oh well, theres always tomorrow!
Today have actually been good and been in for around 5 hours. It was the texas chainsaw massicre with 2 identical chainsaw injuries within an hour of each other. Funny enough they both knew each other too! Another guy turned his logging truck over and ended up with a c-spine fracture so they came and fitted a halo to him, which looked pretty brutal under local anasthetic! Busy day today...one of not many.

So...my plans for the next few ...

03/02/2009 I continue my drive along SH35 Pacific Coast Highway. On my left are gorgeous sandy beaches in spectacular bays and to my right are lush forests on towering hills. Its as if I'm driving through a cross between Southern Calfornia and rural Wales. I'm now heading round the eastern most part of the North Island. I make it to Te Araroa and have a quick look around and drive on. Its only after 10 mins of driving that I realise I've missed the road to the East Cape(the eastern ...

... ich mich gefreut, ** hat dann auch kein Geld genommen, normal**weise haette mich d** Spass so 70 Dollar gekostet (was ich in d** Situation nun auch noch bezahlt haette, man faehrt auch ungefaehr ne dreivi**tel Std. Boot). Ich hatte dann auch schon beschlossen, mir an diesem Abend dann noch ne schoene Nacht auf dem Campingplatz zu machen, als ich dann all**dings bei meinem Auto ankam, musste ich leid** feststellen, dass ich schon wied** nen Platten hatte. Das war zuviel fu** mich und ...

I finally got back to driving, as we continued on our way to Gisbourne, on the East coast via some random gorge that made for some great driving and pullover kodak moments. It was a long and windy road. The bush here is absolutely amazing. If your going to drive for hours, it might as well be something to look at. We eventually made it Gisbourne. The main street was completely ...

... nd bec*use of the r*in opted for * hut *t * c*mpsite inste*d of sleeping in the c*r. The next morning we he*ded b*ck to H*stings to meet with the *pple crew - we'd tr*vel down tow*rds Wellington together. In the evening in H*stings we h*d *n experience not m*ny people we know h*ve h*d - *n e*rthqu*ke! Gisborne th*t we h*d left only th*t morning h*d * 6.8 richter sc*le qu*ke *nd it rocked us *s well, 200km from the center of the qu*ke. We were re ...

... usual), then the lads were making (we obviously didnt want to) us do shots, something called a cement mixer which was foul, and a car bomb which are the thing in NZ. It was really funny tho, and Josh's friends are all really nice too which made the night better! Well the next day was pretty much wiped out due to being hungover! Luckily the weather wasnt very nice so it didnt really matter. We left Gisborne back on the Stray bus on the friday and went to Rotaroa. xxx

... 6-9% state sales tax ,huge property taxes, local taxes, plus lots of little sneaky taxes and fees. Then you have to pay for health care. Again in all fairness, there are NO deductions in NZ's income taxes. The entire income tax return is about 3 very widely spaces pages in large typeface with about a 15 page instruction book. Most of which concerns putting on the name and address correctly. Actually figuring out your taxes takes about 60 seconds with a dull pencil ...

... into a nice pool of water. I opted for the free activity - swimming in the river which was freezing but somehow I got use to it very quickly. After the others were done sliding down the rock we went down the road and stopped off at the Champagne Pools. It was fabulous, I just wish we had more than a half hour to spend there bc I felt like a fish, I did not want to get out ...

... at the Wairere Falls, which were on the way out of Whakatane. We drove from Whakatane to Gisborne on the SH2 which goes inland, rather than driving all around the East Cape. It takes at least 6hrs to go round the cape due to the winding road in and out of all the bays, so we didn't fancy doing that, as it was already 3pm when we left Whakatane. We ended up in Gisborne at around 5pm, staying at Waikanae Beach Holiday Park, which is right by Gisborne's main ...

... narrow, steep, and totally lack a shoulder. The already narrow lanes tend to have a large drop in lieu of a shoulder on one side. You are expected to shut up and die like a man if you run off the edge of the road. This would be the major highways I am talking about. I haven't been on the smaller roads much. Actually there really aren't many smaller roads. In a lot of places there is just THE road and that's it. This is a direct quote from the Eastland ...