Easter Trip to Gisborne
On Good Friday I got up and took Biscuit out to his regular place of doggery, Chesterhope Kennels. Came back home and got the kids fed with breakfast and packed up the car ready for our trip up to Gisborne. We left about 10am and boy oh boy is the road from Napier up to Gisborne steep and windy. Not a great drive at all, we had given Beth a motion sickness pill though so she did a really good job of keeping it together. Just before Wairoa we stopped and had a little break at the side of the road, it was there we realised I'd forgotten to pack Beth's Jandels and all she had was her shoes. Ooops. No worries, back on the road we stopped in at Mahia about an hour downt the road, first of all finding a big beach to look out over before heading a little bit back into town and finding a place with a Asian takeaway truck for some lunch and a well earned rest. Once we got back on the road we made it to our little holiday home in Gisborne, 95B Awapuni Road.
We unpacked, then went for a little drive around to see what there was to see. Not finding a real lot open on Good Friday, we found the local "Adventure Playground" instead and the kids had a great time playing there for an hour or so, Beth was especially happy to find various things that spun around at high speed, making her dizzy and fall over when she walked., She thought that was great fun. We went and found a Fish and Chip shop for dinner, we got there fairly early I thought but it seems ours was the final order because when I walked out with dinner the shutters came down!
Bedtime, the kids had one double bed while we had the other. They took ages to get to sleep, whispering and giggling to each other. It was all very exciting though I guess. When we'd first walked into the house both kids kept saying "Wow I can't believe how small it is!" etc. They don't realise how lucky they are to have the house we do the big large rooms etc.
Saturday Morning we got up and went to The Warehouse to get Beth some Jandels. That was quick and easy and cheap, The Warehouse Jandels are $7 or something silly. Then we went to get a lovely big Breakfast before heading out to visit the longest Pier in the Southern Hemisphere, Tolaga Bay Wharf. It's this HUGE Jetty that just goes for about 800m off the shore. It was fun walking out and looking at the huge cliffs, the kids discussing everything they saw. I didn't much like the end of it though, it was a sheer unprotected drop off and the sea was a bit rough. We took some nice photos though and then walked back, then sat on the beach and the kids had a play for a while. Beth found a dead sea shrimp so of course we had to talk a lot about that and then give it a proper burial. We took at photo, of course, so that in 6 months time she can randomly pipe up with "I miss that Shrimp I found, can I see the photo again?" and we can show her. Theo found a large stick and draw lines in the sand. Then we went and got an Icecream and the little shack/cafe had one of those silly "weather stations" with the "If it's wet it's raining, if it's white it's snowing" etc but the kids thought it was fantastic. So that was a bit of fun.
We headed back home and had a bit of a rest for the afternoon. Then it was time for Stringrays!
We got all dressed and ready and drove off to the Stringray-a-torium. Aka Dive Tatapouri. There'd been lots of talk about the Stringrays in the family, including watching videos about them so excitement levels were high! We got there and listened to talk about what we had to do, then put on Waders so that we could go out without getting wet. Sadly for the kids the Waders were a bit too big, especially on Theo. We quickly realised it'd be way to hard for him to walk out in the water, sure it was only knee level for us but it still had a bit of swell and knee level for us is high for him! Thankfully they have a Banana Boat for the kids to sit on, so they went out on that (along with an old Chinese lady) while Sarah and I walked out. And then yes, we got out there and the Stingrays came in and swam around! Beth got to touch them a few times and was totally freaked out when they swam around her legs, but after a few encounters she calmed down enough to enjoy it. Sadly poor Theo mostly sat on the Banana Boat, he didn't really like being in the water with them. But we got to see them and feed them and had a good time, Beth really enjoyed it by the end and I think Theo sort of enjoyed it too, though he did say he didn't really get to touch them that much, which was true. I think maybe he was probably a little bit little for it, but never mind, he still did get to see them swimming up close and touch one a couple of times.
Saturday night was Pizza for dinner! Pretty good, if a bit garlicky.
Sunday morning everyone was up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny had arrived. He had, he left the kids a big Chocolate egg thing each, and an Easter Cookie. Mummy and Daddy also left a little chocolate Easter bunny and a toy Stingray by their beds, which they loved. Beth called hers "Phantom" and Theo thought long and hard about his Stingray's name before coming up with the name "Antom".
We had some breakfast and then drove to ReRe falls for a quick look, then another 5km down the road to the natural rockslide that's there. A lot of people turned up about the same time as us and we got to see people brave the natural rock slide, going down on various objects. Some had floaties, some only had the floormat from their car etc. One guy could only find a tiny blowup rubber duck to go down on, which was funny because he was 3 times its size. Still people had lots of fun. It looked way too dangerous/slippery for our kids though, in another 5 years they'll love it but they'd have hated it this time. Instead they just got in right at the bottom and had a good old time splashing and playing around. Until it was time to go and because of how slippy it is, Theo's feet flew from under him and he clonked his jaw on the rocks and split it a little bit. He was very brave about it though.
We headed back home and then got ready to go on our Train Ride! Finding the actual train station was a mission, Google helpfully told me exactly the wrong place for the entrance. We got there with a few minutes to spare before the train took off from the station though. It was an old steam engine, more than 100 years old. It puffed down the line, the lady came through to collect the tickets and the kids got to "click" their tickets themselves. We went outside on stood on the back to see the view go past and then back inside for snacks etc. After about 25 minutes we got to the final stop where we all got off and had a bit more of a picnic. Took some photos by the train etc. Then back onto the train for the ride back to where we'd started! It was a really nice little train ride, just relaxing (apart from the kids asking for food every 32 seconds) and watching the world go by. The most amazing thing about it is that the train line goes OVER the airport runway! Apparently it's one of the only places in the world where a runway has a train line go over it. So that was pretty neat/interesting/bizarre.
After the train ride, I took the kids back down to Adventure Playground for another couple of hours. They really loved the playground so it was nice to go back for a second time. We gave Granny and Pa a quick call, though the kids were way more interested in playing than talking to their Grandparents.
Thai for dinner, then off to bed. The next morning we just packed up and then headed home slowly, stopping a few times on the way to break up the windy drive back home. We got home, got unpacked, I went and collected Biscuit from his holiday home looking all fresh and bathed and lovely.
Overall we had a really great time in Gisborne! The kids really really enjoyed it, it was the perfect amount of activities, relaxing and fun for everyone.
Here's a good collection of photos from our Easter weekend!
Tim