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It was a shame I only got to spend a night in Christchurch as it seemed like a city I would have really enjoyed. It will just have to be saved for when I return. The journey to Kaikoura started early, we arrived just after midday and drove along the coast. The activity in Kaikoura was a dolphin swim. Having already swam with dolphins in Mexico and with the digits in my bank account heading in the direction of £0.00 at a super fast rate I said no to the activity. I was very nearly persuaded to change my mind though once we hit the coast and witnessed literally hundreds of dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water. After Kaikoura I crossed the Cook Strait again and returned to the North Island. I spent one night in Wellington and Taupo before starting my East As trip.
The East As trip takes place on the east coast of the North Island. There were only 6 of us on the trip so we piled into a Ford Transit and set off with our 82 year old legend of a driver Rex. Our first night was spent in a quiet little hostel on the coast of Tatapouri. Here we had a BBQ, some raw fish in coconut sauce which was a lot nicer than I anticipated and some beautiful crayfish chowder. After tea we did some wine tasting (it still all tasted the same to me) and then finished the evening by watching Whale Rider which was filmed around the East Cape.
The next day, 27th February, I was one of the first people in the world to see the sun. I woke at 6:45 to watch the sunrise then spent the morning surfing. I was still awful but a slight improvement from Byron Bay was noticeable. I was just going to have to stick at it and spend more time in the water. After surfing we hit the road and Rex showed us some of his driving skills. Apparently he was an ex racing driver and trucker which would explain why he was taking corners in a van at 100km/h, he could easily complete the Nurbergring in under 10 minutes. We reached Rangitukia in the afternoon and chilled having a hangi and being treated to some of Rex’s pancakes. Just after 9:00pm we were picked up by a local DOC worker, jumped into a 4x4 and went possum hunting. Possums are pest in New Zealand because unlike Australia they have no natural predators so they destroy the plant life and native animals. So we drove around the local area with spotlights looking for beady orange eyes in the trees. It was plain to see I hadn’t lost any of my skills with a .22 rifle from my days in cadets as I managed to bag one from about 20m away. We drove around for about another 2 hours but only managed to spot some rabbits and hares which was a bit disappointing but we had a fun night all the same. We woke the next morning to the pleasant surprise of more pancakes from Rex and the less pleasant surprise of the Chilean earthquake. Measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, it had caused major damage in Chile and resulted in the rest of the Pacific being put on Tsunami alert. Being on the east coast of New Zealand we were some of the closest people in the western Pacific to the epicentre so everyone around the hostel was slightly tense. Nevertheless we set off for Te Kaha and by midday we heard the news that the earthquake had caused minimal change to the tide around New Zealand. On the way to Te Kaha we stopped off at the East Cape Lighthouse which is also the most easterly point in the country and probably (unless I visit Fiji in the future) the furthest east I am ever likely to get on the planet. The day was very relaxed when we reached the lodge and the highlight was spending a couple of hours in the hot tub watching the sun disappear and the stars come out.
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