The last major section of New Zealand that we wanted to explore was the East Cape from Gisborne to Opotiki. We didn't know quite what to expect as most guide books seem to miss that area out, but estimated we would probably spend about 3-4 days there.

Our first stop on the trip was about an hour north of Gisborne at Tolaga Bay which houses New Zealand's longest wharf. Not top on our things to see, but as we were passing through we stopped to take a look. The wharf was built in the late 1920's at a whopping cost of $70,000. Today it is no longer a functioning wharf, just the reinforced concrete crumbling away and used only by a few fishermen. I did manage to take some half decent photos though, trying to make the best of the decaying structure.

One of the places we'd earmarked to stay at overnight was Tokomaru Bay a little further up the coast. When we got there the town looked grotty and rundown. After scoffing down a sandwich for lunch we carried on our way past more farms, sheep and cows to the next town, Tikiki.

Luck didn't seem to be on our side as Tikiki was even more depressing than Tokomaru Bay. Many shops were shut down and one covered in graffiti. I know that may sound quite normal for a town in Britain but it's unusual for New Zealand. We barely stopped as we peered through the van window to view the campsite. It looked awful so we ploughed on.

About 20km north lay Te Araoa. The campsite sounded promising as it boasted having its own cinema - "the most eastern in the world". We drove into the camp and there was a sign on the office door saying to find a spot and pay later when they opened at 3:30pm. We parked up and in need of a wee I headed to the ablution block. I wasn't that impressed as it stank a little. I thought the $28 a night seemed a little too much plus we had the campsite weekly average challenge to consider.

Since arriving in New Zealand we've been keeping weekly totals of what we've spent on campsites, food, entertainment etc. With only 2 weeks left and trying to average under $27 a night for accommodation we didn't want to pay over that figure.

As Richard had been driving all day I took over the wheel and drove 40km to Waihau Bay. We were both pretty tired by this point and the woman at the campsite took ages before emerging to tell us it was $36. I don't know how much extra she added on after hearing Richard call them "a bunch of fu*ckwits" for taking so long to respond, but we swiftly moved on.

Our last hope for the day was at Whanarua Bay. It was $24 a night, had no powered sites but the toilets were clean, it had hot showers, and the woman who run it was friendly and efficient. Bingo at last.

You could camp anywhere in the bay, so we opted to park right on the pebble beach like a couple of other campers.

The setting was absolutely lovely. We cooked tea on our gas stove and watched the sunset over White Island in the distance. Along the beach people had started to light fires using driftwood scattered across the shore. We settled into bed for an early night as we'd had a long day, or to put it realistically had no choice as we only had a torch for light and needed that for night time emergencies.

The next day we woke up to bright blue skies. We decided to stay another day to enjoy the scenery and having watched the other people make fires the previous night I was keen to make my own.

After breakfast we wandered along the beach and started to collect sticks and logs for our fire. The guy in the next caravan even lent us his big basket to make the job easier. His fire was still burning from the night before so he just needed to chuck a few twigs on to get it going.

In fear of running out of wood too early Richard suggested not to start our fire until later in the day. So we just had a quiet morning relaxing and watching people kayaking. At lunchtime the guy in the caravan came over and gave us some pieces of fish he and his son had caught that morning and cooked. Richard enjoyed the tasty fish and I left the guy baffled by being a vegetarian.

Not long later the guy and his family packed up and said they were heading back home to Napier and asked us to watch out for his fire. Before he had driven out of the campsite we were moving our stuff over. I would have like to have started my own fire but the opportunity of taking over an existing one seemed too good to miss - especially as we were struggling to work out a way of starting ours with only the gas stove fixed to the van for a flame source. I sat for about the next six hours totally in my element monitoring, watching, poking, and putting more wood on the fire.

As the sun set the cloud formations and colours painted a new scene which was a delight to look at. We spent the late afternoon and evening watching the sunset and observing a group of kids fishing from the shore.

Most of the East Cape is pretty uninspiring and seems to lag behind other areas of the country. I can see now why it's not in many guide books! However, Whanarua Bay is a delightful exception and worth the long drive round the cape all by itself.

Katy