Today was the first day of 'East As', billed as the way to see the Maori way of doing things. Obviously, the Maori way of doing things is to get up very early in the morning after not getting much sleep.

The first stop of the day was at Whakatane, where Pedro (our guide) instructed us in how to seek a blessing from a tree. It seems the way to garner the favour of the elders (embodied in the tree) for a journey is to place an offering of flowers and other plantlife in the trunk of the tree, in this case at its base.

Duty done, we sped off to Gisbourne via some scenic stops, and on to tiny Tatapouri. Alas, poor Pedro did not notice the police car hiding in the shade of a tree when he accidentally crossed the solid yellow line going round a corner. NZ$150 and 10 points (out of 100) later, he got back in the van to complete the drive to our resting place - just across the road from where he'd been pulled over!

Tatapouri has some very nice coastline, so I took the opportunity to surf in the Pacific Ocean - some nice waves and, finally, an upgrade to using 'mini-mals' (still a fairly easy board, but with a hard surface and much more effective at turning and catching waves).

In the evening, a beachside bonfire.