East Cape & Tikitiki

Yes, we have been driving like crazy on the North Island, trying to see as much as possible in a short amount of time and this is starting to wear us out, we are continually telling ourselves to slow down and listen to the birds and enjoy the sights and not too be is such a rush. One of the fun things is finding places to sleep, either in a campsite or finding a cabin somewhere along the way.

From Cape Rienga in the north to East Cape (in the east, though to figure out I'm sure); East Cape is the most easterly point in New Zealand. When I was planning this trip in my head, I was thinking that I would get some pictures of the sunrise from the lighthouse on East Cape, well after driving 20km on twisting dirt roads and climbing 700+ steps up to the lighthouse, I knew this was not going to happen. But, we did get a great view of the Pacific from the lighthouse the afternoon we past thru.

We headed to a small village called Tikitiki, which had an Anglican Church built with Maori designs in all of the the features. The original church was built in 1880, but burned down, it was rebuilt in 1927 on a new location with help from many of the local artisans.

We stayed at a small backpacker lodge that had several cabins, it was a really nice place close to the beach. I was able to walk out to the beach in the morning and try to catch the sunrise, though it was cloudy enough to prevent the absolute sunrise from being seen it was still really nice and peaceful. The surf on this coast is very turbulent, with tremendous undertow, not a place to go swimming.

East Cape & Tikitiki