About Gisborne to Mt. Maunganui to Matakana

From Gisborne we turned inland cutting across the East Cape to Mt. Maunganui. It not only has the Mount, it has beaches, hot springs, fishing and is the fastest growing area in NZ. We could see why. On Steve’s last day on holiday we turned north. We zipped through NZ’s only real city, Auckland, waved to the Sky Tower. It really does look like a hypodermic needle, but more on Auckland later. An hour north of the big city, we were greeted by a very energetic Sara Lewis, clinic manager for Coast-to-Coast Health. Sara welcomed us to our new home, an apartment attached to the half-day clinic in Matakana. Sara had called Steve at work on his last day in Alex to say we could stay in a house in Wellsford where the main clinic was, but not much else was happening. Alternatively we could stay in a small backwater village that had been transformed in the last 5 yrs to NZ’s favorite Boutique town. Steve said, “Call Sandi.”