11 DAYS IN EASTLAND

Where better to start a road tour of New Zealand than at the place where Maori and Europeans first set foot in the country. In around 1350, the Tainui and Arawa tribes landed at Cape Runaway after their voyage from Hawaiki. In 1769, Captain Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to come ashore at Poverty Bay, Gisborne. Combine this rich history with a national and forest park, a volcano, white sand beaches and spectacular coastal driving from Whakatane and you’ve got a summer road trip to remember.

1 Visit active White Island

Forget your car for a day and begin your road trip by visiting White Island, an active volcano 48km north of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. This constantly steaming island periodically, if not spectacularly, erupts mud, lava and ash and is estimated to be between 100,000 and 200,000 years old.

The island was mined for sulphur prior to 1914 when the crater wall collapsed and killed 12 miners. Today, visitors can take an 80- minute boat ride from Whakatane to explore the island by foot, or dive beneath the water’s surface to experience one of the world’s best scuba diving destinations with underwater steam vents, black coral and schools of blue maomao and red snapper darting through the warm waters. Cashed-up road-trippers can take a helicopter from Whakatane or Rotorua and get a bird’s eye view of the volcano before landing to explore it on foot.

The Motu River

Photo: Matt Wills, Tony Gates, PeeJay White Island Tours
White Island

2 Raft the Motu River

Eastland may have been the place where Maori and Europeans first stepped onto Aotearoa, but the wild and remote Raukumara Range through which the Motu River runs was the last area in New Zealand to be mapped. A trip down the Motu – which means ‘isolated’ or ‘severed’ – will give you a good idea why the map-makers took so long.

Take river kayaks or rafts to Motu Falls, about 100km from Opotiki on SH2 and the Motu Rd. The put in is two-kilometres downstream of Waitangirua Station.

With rapids ranging from III to IV, there is plenty of challenge for experienced river-runners (because of its remoteness, novices should go with guides). And with good camping found along the way, this is a river journey to savour over three or even four days.

While the river runs through one continuous gorge, there are three main sections: the Upper, Te Paku and the Lower. Upper Gorge rapids have short, tight drops that are impassable in flood and logjams are common in this section. Te Paku Gorge is a deep, narrow stretch with no major rapids, while the Lower Gorge contains some of the most difficult rapids flowing over large rounded boulders. With names like The Hump, Double Staircase and Helicopter Rapid, these rapids are harder than any previously encountered on the river.

The take out is at the road bridge on SH35, 44km from Opotiki.

3 Kayak from settlement to settlement

With the massive bush-clad Raukumara Range, its foothills tumbling into the sea, as a backdrop on one side and the ominously steaming White Island in the distance to the north, the 60km between Opotiki and Cape Runaway provides the best coastal paddling in this part of the country. The coast is rocky, indented and bushy and there’s ready access to the sea because the twisting State Highway 35 follows the coastline, though you’ll virtually never see it from the sea. You can do all or any sections of this route. It is ideally suited for a car supported expedition, if you have a loyal driver. There are numerous tiny settlements, often with historic churches, all along the route. A number of rivers, including the mighty Motu, disgorge into the sea so it is sometimes cloudy – and watch for half sunken logs. The shingle beaches are invariably packed with driftwood, but out on the water, the fishing is legendary.