Gisborne w/e 4-7 December 2014

We flew up to Napier on an evening flight on 4 December and A&A met us at the airport and took us back home for dinner. The next morning Andy drove us to Gisborne where we'd booked into a hotel by the harbour for two nights. We had a wander round the town, great bookshop with café above it in the centre. Bit of a cold wind blowing the day we arrived but turned out beautiful for the rest of the w/e. Found a great place for breakfast round the corner which did an amazing Hawaiin breakfast booster, a cross between a fruit muesli and a smoothy. Weren't so successful with our dinner on the first evening. All OK but for the oysters which tasted like they'd been through the dish washer. Our luck changed on the second evening when Andy found a Mexican pop-up restaurant which was terrific.

On Saturday we walked along the beach to the old lighthouse

It's a rather odd lighthouse, rusty ironwork and cement, no longer possible to access the spiral staircase

Lots of shags posing above us . . .

. . . and plant-life fossils in the rocks around

Our hotel was close to the marina, behind it is the hill we climbed

Towards the top of the hill, beneath a pohutakawa tree, is a statue of Captain Cook as this is where he where he first set foot on New Zealand soil.

A great view over Gisborne from the top of the hill. Saw loads of tuis feeding on the flax