This is a planning and preparation day for a 3 day road trip starting tomorrw. We’re going to venture to a remote area of the north island, the east cape. It boasts the most easterly point of New Zealand, the East Cape Lighthouse. Unfortunately we can’t get there, the road crosses private land and they have closed it indefinitely, probably due to the terrific storm Gabrielle that hit the area Feb. 13-14, 2023. But there will be plenty to see on this 800km loop trip!

We started this morning with a loop walk to town and up the Gully back to the B&B.

The spikey plants in the front are what they call Harakeke flax here. It’s actually a type of lily and was the go-to plant for all things Maori! They identified many types and cultivated it for the fiber, for basket weaving, rope making and even for weaving cloth!

Some random colorful pictures of things we’ve seen;

Wild iris from South Africa just started blooming in the garden!

A beautiful mural on the Waterfront in Tauranga.

A colorful bathroom at a fishing spot on Lake Rotoiti.

Another bathroom at Okere Falls. The public bathrooms are usually clean and well stocked!

We started our day with a local walk from our B&B down the hill into Maketu then up the hill through Kotukutuku Gully and back to the B&B, about 2 and a half miles total. A nice easy walk with shade in the gully! Informative markers and faded plaques gave information and identification of native species.

The gully was an easier walk than the roadway. It is being restored with native vegetation, there are even 2 young kauri trees growing. A creek runs along the bottom and tree ferns grow up the sides.

Among the native species is this manuka bush, also known as a tea tree. Manuka honey is made by introduced honey bees and it is prized for it’s medicinal value.

Later in the afternoon we went for a drive to Pukahina beach, east down the coast from Maketu. As the crow flies it’s about 2.5 km and an estuary inlet away from our B&B, but we had to drive 25km round about and through a construction zone to get there!

It was a deserted beach for the most part. The road to the beach had lots of holiday (summer) homes lining it, with park and beach access interspersed along the route.

These pastel cabins were on the sand dune above the beach and look quintessentially beachy!

The beach has sections covered with shells, some worn to interesting patterns, and some very colorful!

We found some beach glass too besides shells!

The red arrow points to our B&B, the green arrow is the estuary inlet, the top end of Pukahina beach. It looks like we could walk there! But it’s private property and has steep gullies and lots of cows!

Who Let the Cows Out?… Moo…Moo,Moo..Moo,Moo! Hahaha, that’s funny! We came back from our adventure today to see lots of cows in the field behind us! We were wondering yesterday who mows the field, now we know! There is a dairy across the road and they own the paddock behind us. They move the cows from paddock to paddock to rotate the grazing so as to not overgraze any area.

It looked like Switzerland at the seaside! No cow bells tho, too bad, it would really add to the ambiance!

As to our adventure…we headed back to Tauranga for an appointment. When we were there 2 days ago, on Tues, Nov. 7, we passed by a shop and stopped in to enquire about what I have wanted for quite awhile. I wanted a wedding ring tattoo on my ring finger. I don’t like to wear a ring because it’s uncomfortable to me, so I thought a tattoo would substitute. The tattoo artists actually convinced me it’s not the best place to do a tattoo, too much wear and tear causes fading and blurring. We said thanks, took a card and went on our way. We thought about it and Robert googled some designs and found one we both liked and we made another enquiry to them and ended up making an appointment!

When we saw the sign, we knew we had to go in, even if just out of curiosity!

We met Buster himself! Everyone was so relaxed and straightforward, actually dissuading me from a finger tattoo!

We got there in the morning and Robert elected to go first!

Ready for the art!

We are so happy with our choice!

The koru “is a spiral shape based on the appearance of a new unfurling silver fern frond.^[2] It is an integral symbol in Māori art, carving and tattooing, where it symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace.^[3] Its shape “conveys the idea of perpetual movement,” while the inner coil “suggests returning to the point of origin”… from Wikipedia.

We concluded our evening with grilled lamb burgers spiced with kawakawa herbs and another beautiful sunset!

We had made reservations for the zipline over Okere Falls before we visited the area on Nov. 5. So today we got ready for our first zipline ever! We arrived at the venue and got suited up with our harnesses before noon.

Robert is all harnessed up and carrying his zipline trolley.

Our guides got our group of 8 all geared up and onto the shuttle bus and off we went the short distance to the start of the zipline tour. We started at the head of the falls and those folks who were planning on doing the raft trip afterwards went down the staircase to see the water rushing by the viewpoint towards the class 5 rapids over Tutea falls! We all continued on to the first of several ziplines.

Robert’s view of the river from the first zipline trip. A beautiful view of a huge tree fern and several rafts lined up ready to go over the 22 foot falls!

My view as I went down the zipline, a kayak and at least one raft had gone over the falls successfully!

After we went over 2 ziplines our guides had us “roll back” over Tutea falls in pairs to suspend over the falls and take in the beauty of the view.

As Robert and I hung over the falls we saw a raft come over the falls!

As we tramped through the bush from zipline to zipline (I think there were 4 total, with a suspension bridge also!) our guides gave us historical and natural history information. They described several of the bird species including the New Zealand pigeon, the Kereru (ke-RARE-oo), a chicken sized pigeon! We saw several perching and flying between trees in the canopy! They also pointed out the kawakawa plants along the path, and their medicinal value as an antiseptic, analgesic, and general rejuvenating tonic. They pulled a few leaves off for us to munch as we walked between the zipline sites. At a covered hut on the edge of the forest where they are planting native trees to rejuvenate the forest they offered us hot kawakawa tea to rejuvenate us! It was mild and herbal tasting. The leaf I chewed did numb my tongue just a little.

After our 2 hour fun and informative zipline tour we had a picnic lunch in the parking lot at the end of the tour and hiked back the 20 minutes to the Tutea falls observation point and the stairs to the caves that were closed on Nov. 5. Along the way we spotted more kawakawa, and I picked a leaf to munch.

The kawakawa is distinguished by the knobby trunk and the heart shaped leaves. The holey leaves have the best medicine because they pump the healing chemicals into the leaves that have been munched on by insects!

We took the staircase carved into the gorge wall to the cave at the base of Tutea falls and practically crawled through it.

We were told that at night the paths and the cave are lit up with glow worms!

At the base we were almost level with the river and we could see the rafts as they emerged from the drop over Tutea falls!

A raft that made it over the falls unscathed! The adrenaline rush must be incredible!

For videos click HERE!

We returned home to a relaxing evening and a fairly clear sunset!

The clouds grew and then shrank over the 15 minutes of our viewing them this evening!

We took a trip into Tauranga, the largest town near us, on an errand. It’s about 30-55 minutes away depending on rush hour. We stopped at a shop to make our purchase, then popped into the Bakery next door for a cappuccino and chai latte, our latest obsessions! It was after 1:30pm so the pies in the hot cases were almost all gone, but the proprietor was happy to make us our drinks. There was one customer eating a pie at a table and we struck up a conversation with both of them. The shop attendant is from Cambodia, and we saw he has posters that he has won competitions for his pies! The customer is a local who has a shop nearby, and a kiwi fruit orchard somewhere in the area. He suggested we go check out the Tauranga Waterfront, and the Fish & Chips Shop at the far end of the ‘strand’. We headed that way with our hot coffee & tea and had a delightful walk despite the extensive construction that is going on in the area and the looming storm clouds.

The town of Tauranga is situated between an estuary and a bay. The Strand is the street fronting the park area along the bay side. It appears pretty calm, with both fishing boats and pleasure boats moored in the bay.

This store front on The Strand looks recently refurbished. It houses a hostel and looks like a pretty nice place to stay!

The park has several sculptures and memorial structures. These carved Maori sculptures represent the Pleiades star cluster.

Another sculpture group is whimsical and fun! Notice the cat slinking in the lower front right corner!

This group commemorates a series of favorite children’s books by a local author, the “Hairy Maclary & Friends” series. The bronze sculptures are of Hairy Maclary and some of his friends – Scarface Claw, Slinky Malinki, Hercules Morse, Muffin McLay, Bottomley Potts, Schnitzel von Krumm, Bitzer Maloney and Zachary Quack. Who’s who I wonder? On our way home we stopped for some grocery shopping in Te Puke (I still giggle every time I say it), the closest place for groceries, 15 min. from the B&B. By the way, the Fish & Chips shop on the waterfront was closed.

Te Puke happens to be the kiwifruit capital of the world! As announced by this huge slice of kiwifruit!

We headed home before the clouds burst, and had a decent sunset before the rain finally arrived overnight.