GISBORNE TO HICKS BAY - EAST AS ...

The East Cape has been described as a gorgeous, detached and untouristed slice of North Island. Small Maori communities seem to wash up along the coastline, the pace moves down a gear or two and the landscapes are simply stunning. The Pacific Coast Highway hugs the coastline all the way around the Cape and we set out to complete the drive in three days. Five minutes into the journey and we'd stopped at Wainui Bay and joined dozens of others to admire the skills of the surfers twisting and turning their way in on the huge rolling waves. We tore ourselves away and on to the locality where the film Whalerider had been shot. Try as we might, we simply could not find the sign for the turning down to the village of Whangara. After doubling back twice we gave it up as a bad job and came to the conclusion that the residents were fed up of visitors and had thrown the sign in the hedge.

At Tolaga Bay we took a hike along Cook's Walkway to see yet another bay where he had landed on his great voyage of discovery. The track crossed hilly farmland then arrived at a lookout high above the coastline before descending into dense bush, eventually emerging into the light to cross a last few fields before reaching the cove. After an hour and a half we got to the cove which was quite forgettable, but the same cannot be said of the track which was the muddiest I've ever walked and we do dirt pretty well at home. A bit of consideration by Captain Cook for those that would have to squelch to the spot for years to come would not have gone amiss when he was deciding where to drop anchor!

Beaches just seem to draw us and we spent more time than we should have at Waipiro Bay walking and collecting (more) shells. It was mid afternoon when we left and we were literally miles behind schedule and had no accommodation booked so we decided to put off a visit to the East Cape Lighthouse until the next day and went on to find a hostel at Hicks Bay. It was pitch black when we arrived with no lights anywhere and we weren't sure if we were at the right place when we ventured in through the gate. Having closed it behind us, we were confronted by two pairs of shining green eyes and had we known that they belonged to a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler we'd have been back over in a flash but as it turned out, the biggest danger we faced from them was being licked to death!

It doesn't get much further east than Hicks Bay and only at the tip of the East Cape will the first rays of the sun reach land before here so we were out of our beds by 6.30am and on a rocky headland above the beach to be among the first in the world to welcome the new day. We watched in silence as the sun appeared over the horizon.

We were back on the road early, backtracking a few miles to the East Cape then climbed hundreds and hundreds of steps to the lighthouse at the top of the cliff and panoramic views of mile after mile of rugged coastline and rolling green hills. We were joined by a retired couple from Hamilton who had visited every lighthouse in New Zealand - this one being the last. We took a photo of them to mark the occasion and they took one of us in return - our heads were chopped off but it was a nice shot of the flax nearby. I counted the steps on the way down - there were 759 of them. I can say this with confidence as I ran back up and counted them again on the way down the second time just to be sure ...