"Land ho!"

Captain Cook and Captain Ben
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This is the part of our journey where we stay in a different town every single night for a week.  Gisborne, Anaura Bay, Te Kaha, Whakatane, Maketu, Mount Maunganui.  We live out of a tent and a car, and we spend a couple hours each day driving.  The plan was to wander up the east coast, enjoying the beautiful beaches and lazing around.  Unfortunately, it was raining and overcast throughout most of this week.

Without the beaches, this area did not have a whole lot to offer.  The Pacific Coast Highway was not actually on the coast (it was near the coast, for whatever that's worth), and we had a map which gave a blurb of information about each "town" we passed through along the way.  This contained information such as whether the town had a campground, or a store, or a petrol station (and many towns had none of the above).

Nick Young, famously quoted "Land, ho!" upon 1st European sighting of NZ before landing of Captain Cook's Endeavour
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Interesting sights we did pass along the way: a paua farm, Waitangi Day commemorations in Gisborne, Tolaga Bay to see the longest jetty in NZ, East Cape Lighthouse- the easternmost point in NZ, Maketu pies (world famous in New Zealand!), an A & P (Agricultural & Pastoral) show in Te Puke (very fascinating - see photos), Kiwi 360 - an amusement park-like tourist attraction in the kiwi fruit growing center of the country, a surf lifesaving competition, a beautiful hike up Mount Maunganui, making and eating guacamole on the beach, and the eventful/eventual chopping off of Ben's hair- now Jenny's hair is again longer than Ben's!  And all is well with the world, or ours at any rate.