Fri Jan 20 (Bus to Gisborne):

Since the rented van only had seats for 5, Jenni, Terri, Fran and I volunteered to take the bus to Gisbourne.  So after an early breakfast, Eric drove us to the bus stop and we caught the Nakedbus to Rotorura.

We passed many farms: horse, cow, sheep and vegetable farms.   The terrain was relatively flat with the ubiquitous agapanthus, small knolls, rolling hills and in the distance, larger hills.  The farms and herds seemed quite small:  cottage-industry-sized as opposed to the mega-farms prevalent in North America.  The animals were roaming around in the fields and hills and their grazing terraced the hillsides.

We changed buses at Rotorura and since we had more than an hour between buses, did a 10-minute hike (with our luggage)  to the lakeside to have lunch. There we watched the seagulls and black swans play.

Then  back to the bus station for another 4-hr bus ride, this time to Gisbourne.

Although the official bus stop at Gisbourne was 1.5km from the hostel, the driver was nice enough to drop us just around the corner from the bus stop so we just walked to the hostel.  The hostel was relatively small with only a few semi-private rooms and a couple of dorms.  It had a beautiful deck with picnic benches and a large lawn where some young kids were playing frisbee.   That rack also contained a couple of drying racks: due to the numerous beaches, many of the people staying in Gisbourne were surfers/beach-goers so had towels, swimsuits and wetsuits galore to dry.  These racks were a nice bonus for us cyclists too!

Our room was sunny and bright, with a huge window, although the window didn't open more than a couple of inches.  The showers and bathrooms were in another building, and there was a separate guesthouse complete with bathroom/shower facilities where Jenni and Terri were housed.

We didn't arrive in Gisbourne YHA until almost 5pm (we got there about 10 mins before the van did), and then we had to go shopping to replenish our supplies.  However, Jenni and Terri managed to whip up a pork-vegetable stir-fry served over rice,  with corn-on the -cob (with real butter) and tomatoes & cheese with a home-made mustard dressing, in  a jiffy.  Dessert was fresh apricots.