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Another gorgeous sunny day. Not sure how we managed to be so lucky. We went for a walk after breakfast, to the lookout on the Captain Cook Cove walk, which was right next to the motor camp. It involved some big hills, but it was fantastic, just the two of us, a few cows, some fantail birds, a magpie and a pair of paradise ducks. The scenery was unbelievably awesome, which just seems to be normal for New Zealand.
The walk was supposed to take 20 minutes, but I think it took us longer than that to get to the lookout. It was worth it.
On return, Brett filled the fresh water tank with water, because at his previous attempt, it took too long and we gave up. We suspect that the tank was nowhere near full when we picked the van up.
After we left Tolaga Bay, we heard a strange noise, and we later noticed that the cap for the freshwater fill was missing. Brett had been unable to lock it as it was faulty. It may be that the full tank put too much pressure on the unlocked cap as we went up steep hills.
We stopped for a while in Gisborne. Picked up some groceries and bought a sausage sizzle each. We walked around the harbour - which was full of timber waiting to be loaded onto the next ship - and came across a cider brewery where we had a look around and a tasting. We bought some delicious Bulmer Harvest cider.
Our journey continued, with more spectacular scenery. There were some very steep and winding roads to traverse after Gisborne. We passed a town and noticed a "no fuel for 105km" sign after we left. Brett mentioned that we were running low on fuel however we decided that we should make it. If it wasn't for the windy steep roads, it would have been a doddle. As it turned out, the fuel light (complete with a flashing warning!) came on during one of the steep, winding, narrow portions of road which we were sharing with some big trucks. No stress there!
We reached the next fuel stop safely and filled up at the first servo. Such a relief. I think if we see another of those signs we should just fill up no matter what the fuel gauge reads.
Today's scenery also included lots of paddocks with turkeys grazing with cows or sheep, and lots of goats grazing on the side of the road.
We didn't get as far as we planned, we had hoped to make it to Dannevirke but instead we pulled in to the Waipawa Riverside Holiday Park. We had to wait for a train as we pulled off the main road. It was the first train we had seen since Auckland.
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