The East Cape is very sparsely populated. After Opotiki, the population of the towns ranged between 150 and 550 people, predominantly of Maori descent. I passed very few orhards- the occupations here definitely lean more towards sheep and some cattle grazing. The houses are also a little bit more run-down and shabby than elsewhere, though after discussing it with other hostellers and hostel managers the general consensus is that the overall shabbiness has more to do with the Maoris paying more attention to family than material possessions, in opposition to Westerners' fascination with the latter.
The hostels were some of the most interesting ones i've stayed at. At Hicks Bay I stayed at Mel's Place, which is the real deal when it comes to sustainable and Eco-friendly. We're talking compost toilets instead of running water toilets, gas showers, and solar panels and wind turbines instead of outside electricity. Now generally I am all for environmental sustainability, but seriously, I have two mosquito bites on my ass from that compost toilet. The water closet and its modern-day equivalents were invented for a reason, and a damn good one at that. But hey, when the hostel is the only place around, take what you can get. Just make sure you come prepared with something like an anti-mosquito ray if you ever visit there.
At Tokomaru Bay the hostel was, in all honesty, superb. The town itself is very small, but never fear, there is an excellent little dairy-store selling divine Tip-Top (the leading NZ brand) ice cream really cheap. But back to the hostel: it's called Brian's Place, run, unsurprisingly, by Brian, a man who has lived in the town for 15-20 years and knows nearly everything about the area, oppossum hunting (his winter pasttime- they're a pest and menace here, but the fur is sought after), and just about every hostel and hostel-manager in NZ, or at least those on the North Island. Before I continue, let me talk about the main organization that makes NZ's hostels some of the best in the world.
So there are two hostelling organizations in New Zealand. One is the Youth Hostel Association (YHA), an international organization with member hostels in places like New York City, all across South America and Europe- most hostels worldwide are YHA hostels. The other organization is the Budget Backpacker Hostel New Zealand (the BBH), an organization only of New Zealand hostels. Membership in either organization nets you a couple dollar discount at member hostels. Hostels can be members of one organization, both, or neither. Pretty much 95% of the hostels in NZ belong to the BBH. It costs hostels $860 to join, but membership gets the hostels published into a monthly BBH-produced hostel listing that tells where the hostels are located, what amenities they offer, and it also submits them to user-rating; people who are BBH members can log onto the BBH website and rate the hostels. An 80%+ rating is great, 60-70% is ok, 50-60% is "well, there are worse places," and anything below 50% is "it beats staying in a sheep pen, but not much." Brian's Place had a 91% rating, and it was well-deserved. But I bring this up now because of this: there were two hostels in Tokomaru Bay. Brian's Place was BBH-affiliated, the other, Footprints in the Sand, was not. Footprints in the Sand was listed in all of the guidebooks- Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, etc. Brian's Place was listed in some guidebooks but not in others, yet it still got over 10 times the number of guests as Footprints, because it was listed in the BBH listing booklet. This just goes to show how much travelers have come to rely on the reputation of the BBH organization here in NZ. I joined when I first arrived- memberships costs $45, and you get a free $20 phone card with that, presumably to call ahead and make hostel reservations- and before I stay anywhere I always check the BBH listing of a place. Gisborne was the first town where I didn't stay at a BBH hostel, and that was only because the sole BBH place in Gisborne had such a low rating. If anyone reading this ever does travel to New Zealand and plans to stay in hostels, definitely become a BBH member.
But back to Tokomaru Bay. Brian's Place also had compost toilets, which was its only real drawback. They were much nicer than the ones at Mels Place anyway- whereas at Mels Place the toilet was located about 40meters away from the main building and truly smelled awful, the ones at Brians were spotlessly clean, pretty sanitary, and located right next to the hostel complex. I ended up staying at Tokomaru two nights. There was a local guy offering really cheap surfing lessons, only $20/hr, and with summer here winding down, I felt I had to take the opportunity while I could. Waves weren't very big, which was good since it was only the second time I've been surfing, and really I didn't progress much. I think I need more practice. Should get a few more oppotunities though.
Gisborne was pretty much a return to true civilization. Ride wasn't particularly interesting, but I hit my first really windy day today. About 15km outside of Gisborne, the wind, which had pretty much been a sidewind for the 15km before that, changed into an intense headwind. Very slow going. The Australian group of cyclists, who I kept meeting up with along the East Cape, had gone to Gisborne the day before, but ending up staying another day just to wait out the wind, which apparently had been really strong around the city the entire day. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow- if the wind is still really strong I might just catch a bus to Napier. There's no way to cycle the entire way in this strong a headwind. But that's a last resort so we'll see. The local guy running the hostel says the wind can be completely unpredictable, so it might die down enough to continue.
Maori tribal poles.
There were a lot of one lane roads around the Cape. Apparently these, unlike the bridges, are not planned, but occur because the roads frequently wash out since the island is very unstable.
This picture and the one above it are of the village where Whale Rider was filmed. The village is called Whangara, located just a few kilometers north of Gisborne.
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