Lesley has left for work (yesterday was Lesley's day off and we ventured 50 km north to Toluga Bay). It's still chilly in the mornings and after her shower she dresses in front of our treasured electric fire. The depression has passed and we now have had a couple of beautiful sunny days and can see south across Poverty Bay all the way down the coast. We are glad to report that Young Nick's Head is still there. Just by way of explanation, Nicholas Young was the first crewman of Captain James Cook's ship 'Endevour' to sight the land now known as New Zealand. Cook made his first, and the first European, NZ landing at Kaiti Beach, near to where Gisborne is now established. Our motel is a kilometre from this spot.

I sit beside the picture window and pick up my current book 'Enigma' by Robert Harris. 'Lazy Sunday Afternoon' oozes from the radio, then a warning not to eat watercress until next May as the pesticide could be bad for you. Suddenly, at precisely 8.32am, there is a tremendous thump and the room shakes for a couple of seconds. I wonder, could this be an unhappy neighbour, or heavy handed cleaning staff? In a motel you are never far away from what's happening next door. But there are only sliding glass windows and doors here. Wow, I deduce that it was probably a small earthquake, first time for everything! (Roy's footnote : it was in fact a tremor of medium magnitude, 35km SE of Gisborne at a depth of 48km, magnitude 4.5, felt all over North Island from Wellington to Auckland).

Gisborne is not your Wellington. Here there are no suits clutching takeaway coffee, cutting a daily lunchtime path through the crowd between office and cafe; no pounding of feet along the esplanade in training for some race or other, or perhaps just part of the health keep fit psyche; is it a city thing, keeping fit and healthy? We have left the fast life behind, and it's not that Gisborne is a backwater or really remote, it is just a bit less frenetic, and, frankly, a bit odd. Gisbornites do things differently here. Now, I thought that I was unable to match clothes that I wear but here we have found that the residents have got 'dressing down' to a practised fashion form.

I could sit in Gladstone Road, the main drag, and tell you of some worthy examples of what I mean. However, it's a bit cold here, so I choose to get on with necessary traveller's business, such as organising a mobile phone for NZ use, via one of the three public toilets in Gisborne centre. This one is a small building but grand, architecturally fitting into the streetscape, tomb like and newly painted white, a monument servicing the public's needs. Inside a cubicle there is the usual expectation of a bowl, a cistern, a hole where the coat peg used to be, and scratched on the door a couple of 'phone numbers with the promise of a good time from Jason, who has sketched what he can offer you, leaving nothing to your imagination (there is another message underneath warning that Jason is 'a slut and a liar').

The NZ public toilets are well equipped, unlike many British counterparts, with toilet rolls. With us you have to carry your own or do without as they are not replaced. Here, there is often not one but two in the holder. This is public service indeed. You may very well ask, how is this, is there a lesson to be learned here? Is it that the Brits' loos are not serviced frequently? Or perhaps the more obvious answer..........where we come from the loo rolls are stolen. But here they have a simple solution.......... padlock the holder then the next customer will be able to give the place some business.

The ethic of this petty theft accords neatly with the dire message on the motel information sheet. 'it is unwise to leave washing on clothesline after dark'. My writings are interrupted by a jovial 'Hello' from the door. It is Lynn who looks after the room. "The clock ticks on" she says as we fall into conversation, "ever since my man died two years ago. That was two weeks after my papa died. I meet so many different folk in this job and it keeps me going". She is not from Gisborne but moved from Christchurch 25 years ago. "Ruined", she mourns shaking her head, "just a ruined mess now". I ask her about the clothes line. She says that folk here are poor and yes they will steal your clothes.

It certainly seems that way walking the streets or shopping in 'Pak and Save'. This is where Lynn shops, it's cheaper than 'Countdown'. "Mind you, they always get you, but some things are cheaper in 'Countdown' ", she reflects. It seems that the locals are so hard up that they can't afford proper footwear. I ask Lynn about the bare footed folk walking about with dirty soles, is it a Kiwi way of life? She stops scrubbing the chrome sink and looks up, "No, it's a Gisborne thing. I tell my kids to get shoes on in the street, folk spit on the pavement here and you're liable to get hepatitis. I got that years ago and that's why I'm small. Mind you I'm immune now".

And it's not just barefeet and shorts that people wear here. The next best thing if you can afford it are flipflops, just as good as nothing if you have sweaty feet but I suspect that it's not through choice that many locals wear them. In the UK we wear them on holiday or to relax in or around the house. Sandals are a bit firmer, and then there is the current craze for coloured cheap trainers. You buy a yellow pair and your mother buys a green pair and out you go together, not a head turns, it's all individual style. The other day I saw a teenager in flip flops and her pal in Ugg boots.....anything goes!

I mentioned that we'd come from Wellington, which brings me neatly to yet another form of footwear worn by the locals, gumboots. In our country we call them 'wellies' after yes, you guessed it, Wellington, and we tend to view them as only to be worn when working in the garden or going for a muddy walk and we are quick to change out of them. Bizarrely, gumboots here are as an acceptable form of footwear as barefeet. Even in the sunshine, on a sunny day, with no sign of rain, folk clump up and down the street going about their business in short ones, long ones, black and white ones and not to be too dull, in floral patterned ones. If you really want to dress down, put on a pair of wacky floral pink shorts as well. Why stop there.......how about a duffle coat, yellow leggings and flipflops, with sunglasses just in case you are dazzled by the cheap offers in 'Pak and Save'. Or, if you are a child, let's wear pyjamas when Mum goes to the supermarket, even at 3pm. Perhaps it's a late start or early bed. Yep, it's all true, you saw it here first.......the Gisborne garb!

Must sign off now, time to go to the supermarket.........for more entertainment!