Down the East Coast

The last time I wrote, I mentioned that we were heading east towards the cape. Well, on the way there, we stopped by the city of Ohope by the Bay of Plenty. It was then we realized that the weather might not be in our favor for this particular venture...

Clouds coming in over the Bay of Plenty

Sure enough, as Andy mentioned in a previous post, we faced heavy winds and sideways rain. Unfortunately, this put a damper on our plans to see East Cape. However, the nice thing about New Zealand rain is, unlike Seattle, it only seems to last a day or two before it clears up and we get this lovely weather again:

We continued south along the east coast, stopping fairly often to enjoy the many beaches and beautiful scenery along the way.  Here are a just a few sights from our journey.

Just south of East Cape:

The small town of Waipiro:

Tokomaru Bay:

Shots from the road:

Te Paerahi Beach:

The Waikare River:

We spent the morning of our second anniversary on the 5th hiking near the Waikare River at sunrise.  Later in the day, we explored the Napier/Hastings area by Hawkes Bay.

Sunrise over the mouth of the Waikare River 

Hastings

The last two years have been wonderful and I am looking forward to many many more years (and adventures) with my best friend.

Next stop: Wellington!