The Eastlands

Last weekend I took a road trip to the Eastlands with one of my friends. Our first stop was Tauranga which is on the east coast of the north island. We got there and drove straight to the peninsula called Mount Maunganui. We hiked around the mountain which took about an hour and watched the sunset from the rocks overlooking the water. This was a really beautiful place. Then we went to find a hostel and went grocery shopping. The next day, I woke up early and went for a run around the mountain again. It was even more beautiful in the early morning light! Then we walked all the way up Mt. Maunganui. It took about an hour to make the climb up and it was a pretty steep climb but it was totally worth it. We took so many pictures from the top! Then we got on the road and headed south to Whakatane and we got lunch there. Then we continued on the road and stopped in Whanarua Bay. The man who owned the hostel greeted us with a Maori greeting. It was an interesting experience. Our hostel was incredible! It was literally right on the water and it had hammocks and so many other cool things! We woke up early the next morning and went to East Cape. We climbed up to the East Cape lighthouse which is the farthest east you can get in New Zealand. This was also another challenging climb but it was totally worth it. The pictures don't even begin to capture the beauty that we saw this weekend! On the road, there were cows blocking our path to get through. That was so funny! Then we continuted on to Tolaga Bay and walked the 660 meter pier out into the ocean. It was awesome! Then we drove to Gisborne. A lot of the movie Whale Rider was filmed in Gisborne! We visited Captain Cook's famous statue and walked around the city a little bit. The next morning we woke up super early to see the sunrise! We were the first people in THE WORLD to see the sunrise on the morning of Sunday May 17th! That was also a really cool thing to do. Then we drove to Rere Falls. They were really cool. There is also a natural waterslide there that I was going to go down but I didn't have a boogie board or an inner tube. It would have definitely hurt without one! Then, we continued the beautiful drive back to Auckland. This weekend was amazing. We saw so many beautiful things. The landscape on the east coast of New Zealand is incredible and I loved everything we saw!