Gisborne

So after a lovely Friday evening I decided to join a trip some of my friends were taking to Gisborne! We hired an 8seater minivan so we could drive and set off Saturday morning. It was a really fun, relaxed drive down since we stopped off 4 or 5 times along the way since it's a 6 hour drive and there were lots of beautiful spots along the way!

Ash, Gurline, Me, Me'la, Alyssa, Yuka, Ariel and Winkay

We also decided we were hungry so stopped to have lunch at a Thai restaurant we drove past that looked good!

Just look at the size of our minivan compared to the cliff! You can also see some cows perched rather precariously on the very top of the cliff - we all had images of a cow landing on the car...

The triangular shaped island you cans see in the distance where the sun is setting in New Zealand's most active volcano! 

We couldn't resist wading into the sea, as despite it coming into winter here this last weekend has been lovely and warm and the cold water felt amazing after being crammed into a car for hours

Ash and Ariel 'may' have brought along some alcohol too!

North Eastern Waikato always reminds me the most of england, aside from Southern Otago in the South Island, as it's one of the very few places which is even slightly flat and as such has even more agricultural farming than the rest of New Zealand

The trees were the most beautiful colour - there's huge diversity in evergreens and coniferous trees so there were so many different hues as we drove - that's Ariel modelling a particularly pretty leaf!

So anyway we got to the hostel in the evening and we got the attic room all to ourselves, and it really was very cute, Alyssa got a double bed and we all got to sleep on normal, single beds apart from Gurline who slept on a top bunk (she liked sleeping on top bunks so it was all good)

We woke up bright and early to watch the SunRise. As Gisborne is the first place where you can see the sunrise so it was pretty special!

It was freezing and drizzling slightly but we hung in there and we were rewarding with a very pretty sunrise!

After checking out the hostel we walked up the Captain Cook Memorial to get some views out over poverty bay. There was also a tree planted by princess Diana that Ariel and Alyssa got pretty excited over!

Looking out over the bay with some mountains in the backdrop

And looking from the other side of the hill you got to see Grisborne city sprawled out

We definitely tried to make the most of the self timer on my camera to get some group shots!

From here the weather really picked up and we got some gorgeous sunshine!

We set out looking for Rere waterfall, taking the scenic road was much slower going since it was all unsealed and gravel but the views were so worth it!

At Rere waterfall - it was massive!

You can just see Mel'la and some picnic benches to the right of the waterfall for some idea of scale

After taking a few photos we dipped our toes into the icy crystal water before grabbing lunch

Possibly the best backdrop to lunch

From here we set off again for Rere Rock Slide and got some equally amazing views

This cutie was at the rock slide - he was so friendly!

None of us really knew what a rock slide was but it's basically a natural water slide! In summer lots of locals grab a raft or just something to sit on and slide down it! We weren't brave, or stupid, enough to do that, particularly since the water was freezing but nevertheless it was very cool!

We couldn't help ourselves and walked down the very steep slow, only two people slipped and we managed to catch them before the slipped all the way down!

we were all trying to get a good angle to take a photo to show the rock slide - Alyssa laid down to try and get a good one!

After dawdling longer than planned at the rock slide we finally headed back to Hamilton

The landscape was stunning.

This is definitely one of my favourite pictures as it really shows New Zealand!
We also couldn't resist a few brief stops on the way back including one at a little coffee/homemade cakes and local honey stall a woman had set up.

 We discovered a little walkway down to a riverbed half an hour down the road from the little coffee shop too which was really beautiful! You can see the tree right at the top had it's roots exposed we we didn't linger too long as it definitely looked precariously perched!

It was such a good weekend, and although it was a whirlwind visit to Gisborne I'm so glad I managed to go, as I'm starting to realise I actually don't have much time left here! In fact it's only 66 days until I fly and leave New Zealand for good. And 40 of those are while I'm at university! Time is going so quickly!!

Thought I'd leave you with this beautiful sunset