Gisborne

The drive to Gisborne was up and over and back and forth through a long river gorge. We encountered a new silver bark and leaf tree which vibrated in the increasing wind--maybe a silver maple of some sort? It looked like a ghost tree among the other trees. We loved the forests: evergreen trees, fern trees, various deciduous trees, cabbage trees (which look like anemic palms trees but are unrelated), scrubby manuka bushes. An agreeable variety of greens and textures.

Gisborne is the other gateway city to Eastland and is situated on the beautiful Poverty Bay so named by Captain Cook because when he landed there in 1769 “it afforded us no one thing we wanted.” However, these days, Gisborne is considered Chardonnay grape country so we knew what we wanted! We were eager to stop at a winery or two to sample and buy. Our first stop was the Millton Winery highly recommended by our Fodor’s guidebook. We encountered an unhelpful, bored server and no Chardonnays even open for tasting. The second winery was closed for tasting.

A little frustrated, we drove into Gisborne and found our hotel and the ever helpful iSite. We were directed to a restaurant that does a wine and cheese tasting which we enjoyed! After that, we did a park walk, grocery shopped, and had a light dinner at a waterfront restaurant before heading back to the hotel room for--FREE INTERNET!