Before we set off from Napier we thought we should take the short drive to Bluff, a 500 ft hill in the centre of Napier that was unaffected by the earthquake. So all the older style colonial houses remain and are set prettily along narrow streets that wind up to the top of the hill. Our visit saw us looking out over blankets of low cloud with glimpses here and there of Cape Kidnappers, Napier beach and the town below. The lookout is a very pleasant reserve and on a lovely day would give great views up and down the coast - for us unfortunately it was not to be. The drive north soon took us away from the low cloud and haar up into the mountains where we had some spectacular views looking down into cloud filled valleys and across high rolling countryside, for the most part skirting one of NZ's most remote National Parks. It was evident that this area is much less populated as there were fewer settlements and transport along the way. The guidebooks seemed to play down this area whereas we thought it was great and wished we could have stayed longer (typical!). We turned off inland before Gisborne but this looked to be a thriving and prosperous (and isolated) town surrounded by the sea and rich farmland where Pinot Noir grapes come from and fruit grows in abundance. It is strange at this time of year (early winter) to be seeing so much growth in terms of crops, fruit and flowers. As we were enjoying this drive we wondered if we could stop for a night to fit in a game of golf (although earlier M had announced her retirement from the noble game!!) or a short walk. We knew we had to be in Auckland by Monday morning and it was a long drive so with heads screwed on we drove on into the Waioeka Gorge and onwards to the north coast. The whole drive from Napier to the coast was wonderful. We decided to give Opotiki a miss because it looked a little jaded and kept on heading for Whakatane . We took a shortcut which took us away from the main highway and thank goodness we did because we found Ohope where we stopped for the night. It sits on a spit of land facing inland and the mountains overlooking a 'sea loch' and out over the Pacific Ocean towards White Island, NZ's most active volcano. We had planned to take a trip there tomorrow but had cancelled when we needed to be in Auckland earlier than expected. We got great accommodation at Beach House Lodge at only $80 a night and checked out the local golf course for an early morning tee-off. Food that evening was a delicious and huge meal at a local club where all the locals were tucking into the All Blacks v England 2nd rugby test (which ended up 44-12). E & M xxx