New Plymouth to Gisborne Long Weekend Roadie

Once you’ve decided what to eat (and what to pack for munching on your drive) leap into the car and head out northwards - destination Waitomo and a spot of black water rafting… When you reach Waitomo you have two options to give yourself a buzz. Don your helmet and launch yourself into the ethereal but yell inducing Black Abyss, where you descend into the seemingly endless depths of Ruakuri Cave, before taking the zipline through crazy glowworm-lit halls and then climbing underground waterfalls.

If you’re more of a water junkie, grab a helmet and join the original black water rafting tour - into Ruakuri Cave. Beneath a canopy of twinkling glowworms you’ll float along on your rubber tubes before plunging into the cascading, frothing tumult of the underground waterfalls lit by the starry blanket of the glowworm covered ceiling.

Now, we all know that beer and beaches are a great combo - but one we need to excersize a degree of restraint with (responsible trippers that we are) - so after a beer wrap it up and make your way north for a swim at the remote and very beautiful white sand Newdicks Beach. Raw and untouched, this rugged beach is close to Makatu, on the southerly side of Okurei Point. It’s pretty secluded so it’s entirely possible that it’ll just be you and your crew splashing about in the waves. But like all good things it takes a little bit of extra effort to get there. Drive through Makatu continuing up the cliff to the end of Town Point Road where you’ll encounter a privately owned gravel road which will take you to the beach. You need to pay a small fee ($3 per car) to drive down the road, or you can walk down to the beach for free. There’s a stream at one end of the beach or you can head out into the waves to swim, body surf, or boogie board if you’ve brought one. It’s pretty spectacular as bush clad cliffs rise up from the sand but please bear in mind there’s no surf patrol so keep an eye out for each other as the surf is strong!

Gisborne is hugely important to local Maori and is also one of the first places in New Zealand encountered by Europeans so take yourself off on a walk up the steep steps to the scenic lookouts on Kaiti Hill, known as ‘Titirangi’ in Maori. This is a superb place to gain a physical and historical perspective of Gisborne and Poverty Bay.

Easily accessed from the harbour, the 15-20 minute climb takes you to several observation platforms with sweeping views over the city, beaches, bay, fertile flats, and on a clear day, you can see all the way to Mahia Peninsula and Portland Island to the south.

It’s also the perfect location to view the dramatic headlands that were British explorer Captain James Cook’s first glimpse of Aotearoa-New Zealand nearly 250 years ago. And here’s a little trivia for you, it wasn’t in fact Captain Cook who first sighted land but Nicholas Young, a cabin boy on the HMS Endeavour. He spotted the white cliffs at the southern end of the bay on October 7, 1769 and they were subsequently named Young Nick’s Head (Te Kuri a Pāoa) after him.

For those roadtrippers a little more familiar with ‘boarding, (and even for those who don't want to surf at all) drive down the coast from Gisborne and head out on a little detour on the Nuhaka Opoutama Road to Mahia Beach.

Mahia is beautiful. Truely beautiful. Its glorious white sand beach with clear fresh surf pounding on its shores are perfect for racing into, either with a board or not! Kick back, take a swim, catch some waves and then chill out on the beach for a while or two.