38. The Road from Hobbiton - Day 10

Day 10.

The day in numbers:

282 km driven.

Waves surfed: 1

Waves fallen off: 50+

Approx 1 tonne of sand in the car.

1 endless hill walked up.

The Day 10 map:

Q - Gisborne. R - Mahia Peninsular. S - Napier

I awoke nice and early with a view to heading to the beach and hitting the surf. When I got to the beach and looked at the sea I wasn't impressed, I have seen bigger waves in the duck pond back at home. 

I went to the surf shop to enquire as to where the best surf was, and found out that a place called Wainui was the nearest, best break. I have just looked at the map and unbeknown to me, I was surfing in a place called Shark Bay. I wondered why there wasn't many people there, I think only two others in the water. 

Because the beach was a short drive up the coast from the shop where I hired the gear, I had to put the board in my car. I wish I had had a rope to stick it on the roof racks. For those of you unaware, wax is routinely applied to the surfboard to add a rough grippy layer so staying stood up is easier. That wax is now all over the seats in my car, and has proved impossible to get off. I somehow managed to rub it into the fabric so think it'll be there for ever now. 

The beach at Wainui is pretty awesome, very quiet and the sea is very blue, except when it is white water. 

Further up the road at a spot called Makorori, you could see right back across the bay, it was very picturesque. 

There was also one of my favourites of the many home-made rugby pitches I have seen all over the country:

I am not sure if the posts are IRB regulation size, but it is a great effort!

I though that I should include this picture of Gavin the Avenir with the surfboard on the roof. This is proof that all cars look instantly cooler with a surfboard up top.

The tail tape I fixed the door seal on the car is doing a sterling job, and while on the subject, another great use for tail tape is to 'surf-proof' my watch. It is already waterproof and made of titanium, but the tape secures the clasp and stops the edges catching on the tight wetsuit (which fitted much better than the one I hires in Mount Maunganui).

It really is ingenious stuff, I am just using some now to fix my flip-flop. 

After being severely beaten up by the Pacific Ocean, and like before, swallowing lots of it, I headed off towards Napier. The road runs South down the coast to the Mahia Peninsular, which is a very quiet bit of land that has some great looking views and exceptionally clear water. I took a bit of a detour to go and have a look.

I think the rock in this one looks like cow wearing an eye-patch. Am I right?!

The road from Mahia to Napier travels South-West around the coast of Hawke's Bay. It takes you through some of the best corners I have driven round on my trip so far, and I have swung around a fair few hair pins in the last week or so. There is a spot called Devils Elbow where you double back almost 180º, whilst still climbing steeply. It is great fun to drive, and to be fair the Avenir corners very well for a long wheel base car. The hot weather causes the tar in the road to melt, and when powering round a corner you get plenty of grip. The sound of squealing, tortured tyres did echo through the tree-lined hills at times though. Pumping out some dramatic Lord of the Rings soundtrack goes great with it all too.

I attached my camera to the steering wheel with my bendy tripod and took a 5 minute video of the drive through some of the tightest corners. It is not a good video, you mostly just see the air-con controls when I go round the sharp corners and all you can hear is me turning the air blue as the car in front doesn't accelerate where he should do, and breaks in the wrong places too. He was a terrible driver, and I am by no means a good one (as a later blog will prove)!

Once I had got to Napier and settled into the hostel, I for some reason thought it'd be a good idea to have an evening, post-dinner stroll. Bluff Hill sits on the harbour side of Napier looking out over the water and has a look out that I had been told was worth the effort of walking up the hill. I looked at my map, which was suspiciously vague about the way up the hill, and decided following signposts was the way forward. 

I am not sure whether I took the longest route, but round every corner there was another sign, it just kept on going. Eventually after well over an hour of trekking uphill (I thought it was a 20 minute walk), a sign, with an estimation of how much further it was, appeared out of the gloom. 

500 metres later (more like 800) I got to the top, just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. The lookout was positioned so that the main view was of the large commercial port below. I took a few photos of the still very busy scene of a huge cargo ship and a giant log carrier being loaded up.

I looked at my watch and realising that the pub would be closing soon, double-timed it down the hill. At the pub there was a bloke with a guitar playing a Van Morrison cover. The volume was ridiculously loud, so much so that I didn't hear the barmaid tell me the price of my pint. I was not impressed when I only got $1 change from a $10 note, so I necked it and went to bed.

Day 11 will be following shortly.