Tolaga Bay And Its Great Wharf

We drove on from Gisborne on Tuesday morning, March 6th, heading further up the east coast toward the East Cape, New Zealand's easternmost point and indeed the first place to see the light. Along the way were bays, wharves, churches, volcanoes, and vast seascapes.

Also seals

The big thing at Tolaga Bay, other than the scenery generally, is
the old wharf, 660m long, early 20th century

Like other such wahrves in NZ, it was built to facilitate loading
of commercial vessels, mostly with ag stuff; the wharf fell into
disrepair in mid-20th century, when road traffic replaced sea-
going vessels; but has now been restored as a cultural/heritage
thing

Need any driftwood? The east coast of the North Island is a
good place to look; also to learn surf-boarding

Very mild and regular surf; this day

Large sea cave; the crashing reminded me a bit of Fingal's Cave,
Inner Hebrides

A whole long cliff's worth of sea caves

And islands in the bay

End of the line

Looking back the 660m

An arch!

Thus

Beginning surfers

Last look

Wit

More wit

Another beauty

Gisborne

We proceeded on to the small city of Gisborne, staying two nights at the marina freedom camping area right downtown. We enjoyed nosing around Gisborne just as much as the other east coast small towns we have visited.

Interesting sculpture all around

Garden next to the marina

Gisborne prides itself on being "the first city to see the light..." international
date line, etc; this is of course arbitrary, since the Greenwich meridian might as
well have passed through Paris...nonetheless

More sculpture

And some art deco here and there; Gisborne wasn't affected by the 1931 earthquake
as much as Hastings or Napier

A great deal of historical signage

Obligatory clock tower

We're very much into girl scouts things presently

The free camping area, Sunday afternoon

"Evolution"

A gift from China on the occasion of the 2008 Olympics

The marina, interestingly, was mostly out-riggers of various sizes

I love cities that have this kind of self-regard

Not to mention historical/literary associations: here is Sir Guy of Gisborne, that
is, Basil Rathbone in one of his iconic roles (he's reading the death sentence for
Sir Robin of Locksley)

Deco Echo Church In Wairoa

Near the Mahia Peninsula we came across this interesting church in Wairoa...

Initially I thought this was, at last, finally, an Art Deco church

N. B. the tower and its rounded top

The 1950s construction date suggested it was, at best, a Deco
Echo (as they say in San Francisco), however

An education/administrative wing had been added to the port
transept (which way do they point to Jerusalem in this
hemisphere?)

At length, particularly looking at the tower, I concluded it had
been designed maybe by one of Albert Speer's associates, who,
after the war, had emigrated to NZ; Vicki concluded it was
the ugliest church she had ever seen

More Of Mahia Peninsula

The next day, March 4th, we took a drive on a bit of the peninsula...

As always, different rock formations yield different beaches,
coasts

Pacific in name only this day

Local info

Local fisher-persons

Another slip, this one going all the way down to the beach

Real log home, most unusual in NZ

A startling find

And an incipient bra fence

Overlooking a beach strewn with used car and tractor tires

Wild, beautiful place