Tag Archives: Whakatane

Day 6 – Along the coast

The shoreline looking east

The shoreline looking east

In the morning, we realized that once again, we had camped in a swamp. After packing away the tent, we looked like pigs. But it promised to be a nice day so we started our riding.

We went along the coast towards Whakatane the whole morning. The White Island was visible on the horizon spitting white smoke into the sky. It looked rather impressive. The White Island is an active volcano just off the coast here. Small stops for photographs and more Gisborne oranges followed.

It turned out that Whakatane for lunch was a bit of a stretch goal. I am just not good at judging distances at all so this will be entirely Flo’s task from now on. 🙂

A cosy warm night, Sasha agreed

A cosy warm night, Sasha agreed

Late lunch turned into an even later start back on the road. By this point we were just looking for a place to set up camp tonight and a last refuel. About 5 meters behind the gas station, we waved to a couple next to their motorbike…and then Flo turned around to briefly talk to them. What started out as a roadside conversation turned into an invitation for the night.

Michael and Sandra have just simply been the greatest hosts. They welcomed us into their home, offer food and a bed and are just in general amazing people. The icing for me was obviously their cat, Sasha, hogging the wood fire oven all evening.