To East Cape

Leaving the Coromandel we travelled through the Bay of Plenty. This was named by Cook as he had more luck getting provisions than at Poverty Bay where he first landed. Nowadays it is kiwifruit country. At a tourist attraction called Kiwi 360 you can learn all you ever wanted to know about the fruit, buy various products made from it and climb up the giant kiwifruit.
The East Coast proper starts beyond Opotiki and the road follows the coastline for most of the way past rocky beaches and headlands. This is Whitianga Bay (not the one in the Coromandel)

and this Te Kaha.

Onepoto Bay

and Hicks Bay.

We left the main road at Te Araroa

and continued along a partly unsealed road to East Cape where pohutukawa trees are the main vegetation..

This is East Island (Whangaokeno) the original site of the lighthouse

which was relocated to East Cape in 1922. We didn't have enough to complete the lighthouse hugging but I'm sure it appreciated the effort!

We took lunch under some trees on the way back to Te Araroa

and ran on the beach.

This is reputedly the oldest and largest pohutukawa tree in the world. It is called Te Waha O Rerekohu and may be 600 years old.

It was a hot day so we decided to indulge in enormous ice creams.

This notice tickled my fancy! Horses are still a common form of transport around the East Coast. We saw a couple of young girls riding bare back and texting while they travelled.