time to kill

i took the surfboard into the repair shop on Monday and they said it would to take 2.5 days and $80 to fix. that's not as bad as i expected. i still think the toe is broken but it's not that bad. as one friend suggested, i should cut it off and turn it into a necklace.

instead of hanging around Gisborne waiting for the board, i went for a drive around the East Cape. i drove clockwise from Gisborne (Gisborne to Opitiki to East Cape Lighthouse to Gisborne).

here's a map of it. i drove the the yellow line from Gisborne to Opitiki, stayed the night and then drove all the way around back to Gisborne today.

before i left i also stopped in and got the ears lowered. and by lowered i mean buzzed. i'd been thinking about it for awhile now but the the ruckus on facebook over a recent picture was the straw that broke the camels back. the result? i look more ridiculous than i did before. it might not be that bad if i had normal facial hair but this bushy beard makes me look really intense and a little scary. hopefully it'll get better when it grows out a bit. no good pictures of it yet though. that's the nice thing about doing this trip by yourself when you do something stupid like shave your head, nobody knows what i looks like back home if you don't want them to.

i told the barber that cut my hair that i was going to drive around the east cape. he told me to be careful out there because the people aren't very friendly to campers. sure enough, on the drive around the cape i had two people run me off the road. the roads are narrow and there aren't a whole lot of cars out besides campers and local trucks. the trucks would see me coming and intentionally cross the center line and play chicken with me. i just pulled as far off the road as possible and stopped. fun times.

anyway, here are the pictures.

Ohiwa beach outside Optiki

the bay behind Ohiwa beach

looking down ohiwa beach to Opitiki

church by the ocean along the drive to the east cape

all the way out in this super isolated area, 20km down a gravel road and at the base of the hill of the lighthouse there is a giant field of corn. everything's been picked, by HAND. that's why all the stalks are still up i'm guessing.

island off the lighthouse

looking south from the east cape

cow's by the ocean. i took this on the way back but i should have stopped on the way out because they were actually out laying on the beach then. it's was definitely a bizzare sight to see cows on the beach.

my grade school teachers would be proud and my high school English teachers would be stunned to hear that i've just finished my 4th or 5th book of the trip. that's more than i read all through high school and most of college. this last one was "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. it's the book that they based the movie, Simon Birch, off of. it was really good. way better than the movie. read it if you get a chance.

after i pick up the board tomorrow, i'm headed to Auckland because i've got tickets to the rugby game on Friday night, Blues vs. Stormers, the #2 and #3 teams in the league. should be fun.