The good news was that we hadn't been blown away, the bad news was that because we hadn't dared go outside the car, we hadn't noticed that I had left the headlights on, and so had ran the car battery down. Luckily there was a car at the petrol station, so I went over to ask if they had jump leads. They hadn't but they were going to the lighthouse too, so they dropped their bags and guitar in our car and drove us up there. Danny was from Brisbane, and Grant was from St Louisa in USA, and they were both photographers who had met on a cruise and were travelling together, in a car they had brought whilst here. They had picked up Florien, a German hitchhiker, and since they had just come from a motel with a scary woman in charge, had been a bit on edge when I came over. Grant was very amusing and, looks wise, reminded Alice of the guy from Dawson's Creek. We had to climb 700 steps to get up to the lighthouse, which took a lot out of me and Alice, but it was quite good being with the boys as they had gone up so fast it encouraged us to hurry so that we got up there just in time for 6.14- when the sun was supposed to rise. However, it was cloudy so we couldn't actually see it when it rose. Luckily it broke through eventually, and it probably made it more spectacular as the way the rays broke through was a bit more interesting. It also convinced me that we were the first 5 people to see the sun today, as the sun is supposed to hit Mt. Hikurangi first, but I persuaded me and Alice to believe if we were up that high, you wouldn't be able to see the break in the clouds, and so surely the most easterly point would be the first to see it?

We thanked them for the ride by making them hot drinks whilst we waited for cars to go by who potentially had jump leads. Danny got some from the garage, and got the car running again. A boy from the village, and then later on his girlfriend, came over to talk to us. Grant was amazed at the difference in hobbies they had- how outdoorsy and practical the boy was. He went to pick up the crayfish he had caught the day before, and which he was going to eat at lunch today, and gave Danny one. Since both cars were going to Gisborne, we arranged to meet up with them (we thought we'd get some of the crayfish but this didn't happen as they didn't stay for dinner in Gizzy like we did).

We stopped at Tikitiki's church of St. Mary as the guidebook said it was a good example of a marae, and we were going to stop at Te Puia springs for the hot pools, but there wasn't a sign for where the pools were so just carried on to Gisborne. After visiting the I-site and stopping at the Olympic Pool so Alice could have a shower, we did our laundry and made our first visit to a Pack'n'Save- the cheap supermarket. Given that I went in not needing anything, I managed to come out with a few things- I got very excited at the scoop and weigh section, and brought dark chocolate ginger. There seems to be a popular Kiwi flavour called L&P- lemon and paeroa- and I tried the drink (not that great) and the Whitaker's chocolate bar (not that great either), and also a Feijoa(?) fruit smoothie. Apple cucumbers turned out to just taste like cucumbers.

We thought a suitable activity to do with the boys we met earlier would be to visit the Gisborne Gold beer factory, but it was quite small and we didn't get to look around. The size of the tasters was pretty good either, but I didn't like the beer enough to buy some. We drove our car to where we wanted to camp for the night (before we drank too much to drive) and then met them again at the cidery which made and bottled for Bulmers and Strongbow. The New Zealand Strongbow is a lot nicer than English Strongbow, and the New Zealand cider which makes fruity cider flavours like strawberry and lime s also nicer as they are only allowed to sell drinks with real fruit flavours, instead of syrup they use in Rekordlig. They had a flavour of watermelon and cucumber which was so good we brought a bottle each, and I also brought a strawberry and lime one. We made our way to the final stop on the boozy tour of Gisborne- the Winery- but it was $12 for a tour. I wanted to buy some Chardonnay since Gisborne is well known for it so I brought the cheapest bottle at $18. The boys had decided they wanted to travel on, so we said goodbye (it meant we never got any crayfish).

Another thing I had set my heart on doing was eating fush 'n' chups so we waited outside one of the places the lady at the I-site told us about, tutting at how late it was opening until I asked a woman who worked there who pointed out that 5 pm was when it closed not when it opened... how we both made the same mistake I don't know! We ended up getting it at Captain Morgan's, which had an advert on the radio, although it wasn't great. As well as the fish and chips, I tried a battered mussel and a Paua (abalone) fritter, which was disgusting. We drank the wine out of paper coca-cola cups in the van.