Fantastic, amazing, great, cool, gorgeous, EAST BRO!
East bro definitely belongs in this list of words, why? Because it is something magical. East bro is another trip you can make on the North Island if you are in New Zealand. Stray is the only bus company who offers this trip, what makes it extra special. Not a lot of people have went to the east coast even not the Kiwi people, what makes it even more special. A big part of people who lives on the east coast is Maori. So if you are looking for the real cultural New Zealand sport, GO THERE! A good thing to know they only offer this trip in the summer, it starts on 3th of November and the last trip leaves on the 30th of April. They leave on Wednesday and Sundays from Rotorua. Luus and Lies went from the 25th of October till the 28th of October. They recommended you to stay at least four days, but you can always stay longer off course.
What I already mentioned it is a great place to go if you are looking for the Maori culture. All they owners of the hostels were we stayed were Maori people, so you can expected really friendly people and amazing food! The first stop we make was just outside Gisborne on a place just next to the beach. We had a great dinner there with some fresh crayfish and mussels. After the dinner we drunk some beers, make a fire, listen to some guitar music, in other words we were having a great time!
The plan was to go not that late to bed, because of the sunrise the next morning but because the atmosphere was so good we just had a short night. Especially when we wanted to go to bed an one of the guys offer us a sheep tail and yeah you don’t say no to that. It was a, extraordinary experience to eat a sheep tail.
The next morning was a little bit harder after a few hours sleep, but the beautiful sunrise makes us forgot our tiredness. What makes the sunrise in Gisborne so special, well it is the first sunrise in the world. While the sun was burning on our skin, we were going to feed the stingrays, what is a funny thing to do. The biggest one was 2.5m span, so imagine that is bigger than a person. The stingray were really sweet and they were eating the fish from your hand, what feels quite funny. After feeding the stingray, we went to the most natural rockslide I have ever seen. It is a 60meter rockslide in the middle of the river. So we brought some wetsuits and tubes and there we go off the 60meter rockslide, a lots of fun!
On our way to the next hostel we made a stop at the pier, who was the longest pier in New Zealand. And off course you can’t leave before you jumped of the pier. In the evening we arrived at our new hostel, an old monastic. The food was really good there as well, chicken, sweet potatoes, etc and a delicious desert. The next morning we had to wake up early for a creative workshop. You could choose from flagging, bone carving or greenstone carving. We both choose the flagging, but it was a hard decision because all the workshops seems to be fun. You can see on the pictures the results. After the workshop it was time for something active and we climb up the hill to see the lighthouse and the great view around it. Time flies when you are having fun, so after the lighthouse we already need to go to the next hostel. One off the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. A fantastic house next to the beach. Were you can do a lot of fun activities, like shark diving, surfing, canoeing, swimming, snorkelling, boat cruises etc. that sounds good fun huh?! And the best part is they have a lot of cheap activities. You only pay $30 for a boat cruise including meal and $10 for rent a surfboard and a lot more good deals. For all the hostels you only pay $25 and believe me they are totally worth the money. So are you interested in this trip, come to the Internex office and we will book it for you with a discount off 5%!
For more information look at the website:
http://www.eastbro.com/#!activities/c4uq
Or come to our office and we help you further!
Cheers,
Luus and Lies
INTERNeX New Zealand 