Hawks Bay, Eastern Cape and Bay of Plenty

Good Morning pic

As always, "the early Bird" since it is still too cold and stormy, we decide to find a windless place for our breakfast.

We find that at Tolaga Beach behind the dunes.

There is supposed to be the longest pier in NZ here..... but we can't find it🫣

We are completely alone here. There is hardly any tourism on the peninsula. The weather is good today, so we can have breakfast in the sun.

We want to explore "Eastland" on the Pacific Coast Highway today.

The road conditions here are, let's say, not optimal.

After several construction sites (NZ is full of shell game players😉)

We arrive at Te Araoa, where we turn off to East Cape.

It is not quite clear whether the road is closed or not. 😑 Nevermind. Parts of the road have broken off everywhere,

Asphalt alternates with gravel and we try our luck through a muddy passage that is quite high and slippery.

We start to slip a bit, but manage to make it. I wouldn't have wanted to push through ankle-deep mud🫣

It must have rained a lot here in the past few days.

We are glad that no cars are coming towards us. The road is quite narrow and one side warns of the road breaking off and the other side warns of rockfall.

Arriving at the East Cape lighthouse, we have to realize that the track to the lighthouse is closed. Not really surprising.

At least there is a digger clearing away the mud masses, so we don't have to go through it again.

Actually, we wanted to stay somewhere on the East Cape, but it's really deserted here.

All campgrounds are closed and camping is prohibited everywhere here.

At least we hear the first Christmas song on the radio today🎶🎶

The peninsula has a very high Maori population, so you can always find signs with "Marae", which are the meeting houses of the Maori people and are usually adorned with elaborate carvings.

After passing numerous freedom camping sites and normal campgrounds, all of which are closed or prohibited, we continue to Waiotahe Beach near Opotiki. (Island view Holidaypark)

We are lucky and get a pitch in the front row by the beach..... although the place is pretty empty.

 After a walk on the beach 

we cook in the pretty new and modern kitchen and grill a steak. The campground is well equipped.

We finally get to enjoy seeing the starry sky tonight.....wow...wow...wow, it's speechless.