Sunday 03 March

Whakatane, Bay of Plenty
This is our second night in Whakatane. We finished our trip around the East Cape yesterday morning. The west coast was quite different to the eastern side, much more rugged. We headed for this site at Whakatane, and we made a really good choice. First the campsite is good, some of the facilities are a bit aged, but it is very clean and tidy and not at all crowded. We looked at one the other side of the estuary first, at Ohope and were overwhelmed by it's size, the number of people there and all the wonderful facilties. There was a swimming poolwith a water chute, not us at all so we have come to this more modest site amd are very comfortable here.
Yesterday afternoon we walked along the river bank into the part of the town bordering the river estuary. It is a lovely place, it feels so perfect it could be a film set. There is absolutely no litter, although that is the case for practically everywhere we have been in New Zealand. On a Saturday afternoon everyone was going about the place very slowly and casually. Families had spread picnics out by the river, and in one of the many grassy areas. Children ran to put their rubbish in the bins, youngsters played together, jumping into the river or riding their bicycles, or playing touch rugby.
Rugby rules! Groups of lads, mixed Maori and white hang out on any piece of grass and play with a rugby ball. On campsites couples spend time throwing a rugby ball back and forth. A man playing with his dog was tossing a rugby ball for it.
Today we did one of the walking routes recommended for the area, or rather part of it. We climbed up and down, between sea level and about 200 metres for what seemed like many times. Most of the time we were in the thick forest which we have used to seeing here. We understand that there are actually wild Kiwis (birds, not people) still living in this area. They are endangered and you are very lucky to see one in the wild, most are in captivity in conservation area. Although we heard several rustlings in the undergrowth we didn't see one. Everywhere here is very dry, they haven't had rain for a long time, at least three weeks, and even a dead leaf fluttering to the ground makes a noise. The walk took us four hours and as the crow flies we only covered about 8 kms, but I am convinced we can double that to take onto consideration all the ups and downs. The walk we had planned should have been a circular route, but half way we needed to cross a bay at low tide. When we reached it I was concerned about the rising tide and the fact that we would need to scramble over rocks already partially covered, and not knowing anything about the local conditions decided it was a risk I didn't want to take. So we had to retrace our footsteps instead. The consolation was that the walk back gave better views than the walk out. We will both have tired legs tomorrow, but after a long, hot shower and a couple of beers I am making a good recovery.
Tomorrow we are headed for Rotorua and more hot springs, geysers etc. We will probably stay on DoC sites for the next few nights so no more WiFi for a time.