Sun City without the sun

During the Gisborne weekend, Mike flew up on Saturday to (bravely) join the group of 60 or so of my immediate family, cousins, aunties and uncles. By then the weather had become very average. Rain in sunny Gisborne? Unfortunately yes.

After collecting him from the airport we were halted for a couple of minutes when the police closed the road. Mike knew he was in Gisborne when it became clear what the stoppage was for.

Nothing out of the ordinary in this part of the country

In amongst all the family stuff on Sunday we grabbed a bit of downtime for a little bit of local sightseeing.

You can’t really go to Gisborne and not go to the beach, it’s like an unwritten rule, even if the atmosphere is a tad damp. We took a drive out to Wainui and found a surf competition so stayed to watch it a while. Unfortunately the amount of time they spent bobbing around waiting caused my interest to wane.

Surfers heading for the water at Wainui Beach

Action from the surfing comp

Later we went in search of a cafe meal – we struck out on our first attempt at the marina, but found success not far away.

No food at the marina but a pleasant view

From there we took a drive up to Kaiti Hill which provides a great view over Gisborne and the harbour. Mum always talks in fond terms of this place as it was where dad proposed to her over 40 years ago (though said father will roll his eyes and give an exaggerated sigh should he be in earshot if this is mentioned).

From Kaiti Hill looking across to Midway Beach

Looking down over Eastland Port

Another view from Kaiti Hill

That was the end of our extra curricular activities on this particular trip – the weekend was about spending time with hoards of cousins, aunties and uncles after all!