Bed for One

Not all who wander want to be found 🍂

Whakatane (3D2N) 🇳🇿

March 12, 2016

This may seem a bit off the beaten track but we covered Whakatane in our journey as we made our way to East Cape Lighthouse to be one of the first few in the world to watch the sun rise! (I’ll talk more on that in my next post)

We didn’t want to make the long drive to East Cape Lighthouse (200++km) and wanted to stop over somewhere to spend a couple of nights to recharge before continuing the journey.

So many KMs to cover! Doesn’t help that I can’t drive.

Day 5: 24 October ’15

We stayed in this really rad place on Airbnb where the host had freaking 26 acres of land! (!!!) Her neighbor – you had to drive over to reach the house – had flipping more than 20 alpacas.

An absolutely stunningly ridiculous view!!! It was raining the second day but the skies cleared up on the third.

Her place was up in the hills and there was barely any cell coverage so we were disconnected from the world temporarily which was good! (It takes about 7 minutes to drive up the hill to reach her house)

Didn’t have anything planned to do in this small town cause it was more of a stopover but the host was really nice to invite us out with her to see the town a li’l.

Gloomy day but didn’t stop us from having fun! Host brought us to a secluded beach to snorkel but waves were too choppy. She wanted to spear some fish.

Cooooold.

Not too sure what we were doing with our lives.

Exploring the town of Opotiki.

Her neighbor’s alpacas!!!

Our host entertaining us by calling her sheep for us to stare at.

Meh.

We washed up, rested a bit, headed out to see the town center and stock up on the groceries.

Cute li’l oyster shack. They were sold out when we reached!

Such a view you get to admire while you chow down some seafood.

So many yarn bombers in OZ and NZ.

We sat at the visitor center for awhile to use their free wifi to book our next accommodation. It was quite a pain to find a place to stay at to rest for a few hours before driving to East Cape Lighthouse in the middle of the night. Hotels/ motels/ inns were either too expensive or quite a distance away from the lighthouse.

25 October 2015, Sunday

Woke up to such gorgeous weather. Look at how ridiculously beautiful her house is!

So. much. land.

Our space for the past 2 nights.

Left in the morning to continue driving to Te Araroa and explore other sights along the way.

The famous White Island in the distance – world’s most accessible active marine volcano. We didn’t go. We were on a budget.

I LOVE YOU, COUNTDOWN.

Ya, you do that.

My mess.

We almost got stuck in that sneaky plot of black sand.

Random beach along the way.

Mad love for Whittaker’s.

Whanarua Bay

Host shared with us a sweet spot to visit along the way + a café that sold really good macadamia nuts! Sadly the store was closed but we did enjoy some really pretty sights.