East As Bus - Taupo to Napier

On Monday 28th May I left Taupo to go on the East As bus. This is a four day tour starting and finishing in Taupo and covers the east coast of the North Island. I was very lucky and had a great group. There were 8 other girls and one guy - lucky him! We headed up to Rotorua for a quick morning snack break. Rotorua is a geothermal area and smells like rotten eggs at times! It was strange driving round and seeing steam coming out from the ground. Our first stop was Rotoma Lake which was lovely and the first stop for a group photo. The drive along the coast after this was spectacular and the photos again don't do it justice. We then stopped at a beach and got views of White Island. We also stopped at a lookout to get a lovely view back along the coast. Our first night was spent and Te Kaha Homestead. It was run by Maori's and was great fun. They had a hot spa on the beach and so we all enjoyed watching the sun set from the hot tub.When we had arrived, our host had sang us a song and we had to reply so we practised our song while we sat in the hot tub. In the evening we played a number of card games and sang some songs before and after the rugby game. It was a fun evening. On the Tuesday we left Te Kaha and headed further along the coast to East Cape. On the way we stopped at a church, some beaches, lots of sheep on the road (a reminder that I am in NZ!) and then arriving at Eastenders Farm Stay at Rangitukia. Most of us went on a 2 hour horse ride. It has to be one of the best horse rides I have done while travelling. We got to gallop along the beach and at one point this ended up with me galloping through the sea and jumping some waves, resulting in a rather wet Louise. After riding along the beach we rode up to the top of a hill and got great views of the East Cape. It was stunning. We then rode back to the Homestead where we made our own bone carvings. The bone carvings took a lot longer to complete than I expected but was interesting and I now have a lovely necklace. For tea we had a Hangi meal. This is a meal which is cooked over hot rocks under the ground - a method used by the Maori's. The food was lovely. The rest of the evening passed with us playing cards again.

On Wednesday we left the East Cape and drove down to Napier. Before leaving for our long day of driving we got up to watch sunrise. We walked up to the top of the hill and watched the sun rise over the sea. The East Cape is the first place to see sun rise. It was worth getting up early for. On our way to Napier we stopped at Tologa Bay. This is where NZ's longest Wharf is - 600m long. Some people jumped off the end and went for a swim and then Jo swam the full length back to the beach. We also stopped off at Gisborne for our lunch break. This was one of the places Captain James Cook found.

We arrived into Napier at 5pm and this was where I met up with my Uncle George and my cousin Blythe. It was great to see them again. We went back to their house in Havelock North where the rest of my cousins Jean, James and Moss made a quick appearance to say hi. That evening was spent catching up with each other.