We left Turangi to drive the East Cape on the way to visit with Trevor’s folks in Tiniroto. The drive is pretty rugged with no passing bays and quite a lot of trucks so we allowed two days for the trip with the thought that we would be stopping numerous times for sightseeing. Not only are the roads rugged (narrow, along cliff edges, across mountains) but the road itself was in pretty bad condition due to the winter weather. As you can see from the photos below, we often came to repair work because of road slippage, aka mud and rock slides.
As we entered Waiao Bay, we came to this beautiful church standing all alone on the sea edge. We didn’t get a picture of the sign in the church entry explaining that there was a strong and foul smell in the church because there was a nest of baby penguins under the baptismal font. Unfortunately, the penguins were actually under the floor and we couldn’t see them.
We arrived early enough to have some time to walk the beach and watch the sunset. While the sunset was great, we were both quite taken with the enormous piece of driftwood on the beach.
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| Great evening clouds over the bay |
On the way to Wairoa and Tiniroto, we stopped to view this church in Tikitiki.
The carving on this pew is exquisite. Note that it is inlaid with paua shell! All the pews had these colorful pillows to sit on.
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| This is the baptismal font |
The church sits on this hill and has a view of the valley below.
Before getting to Wairoa, we came upon McNeil Road and thought about our family in Austin who lived or went to school near McNeil Road. Of course, McNeil Road in Austin is a lot busier than this one.
I'm going to stop here because my connection is getting funky. I'll post more in a little bit.
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