Sunday, March 15: Sunny for a brief spell then clouding over and a few rain showers gradually increasing in intensity as Pam approaches

Ethel’s, spacious bedroom with shared facilities (airbnb, $50)

Breakfast and packing were very quickly dealt with and I was on the road before 10:00. Took the coastal route to join the SH2 near the unfindable kayak place then along to Opotiki and the shorter route to Gisborne.

Very abandoned looking places up in the hills and nothing much like civilisation until Ormond with its vineyards. The going up until now had been fairly slow and I had stopped for two pictures (Dangerous Watermelons, and Other people make mistakes) earlier along the way.

Arrived in Gisborne just after 1:00 and had lunch in the skater park opposite the i-site after determining the Flying Nun was full up. My plan was first to get wifi – which was graciously provided by the i-site itself – and try to get a booking via airbnb. This, of course, would be touch-and-go. Since the i-site closed at 4:00, I decided to wander around town until 3:30, then either cancel the airbnb request and see what the i-site could find for me, or find a confirmed booking and take that.

Got a hokey-pokey from an ice cream shop on Gladstone St for $2.9 and went window shopping for as long as possible. Noticed that the library had 24/7 wifi so brought the car around and logged on, but as yet no news from airbnb. Rain started to fall so I headed out to where the airbnb place was, but nothing much seemed to be doing at what I determined to be the property. Then it was back to the i-site for the moment of decision.

Got the woman there, Kim, working on finding me something for under $100, then logged into airbnb and found an acceptance. That was close. Kim had found an offer for $65, which also wasn’t bad, but I now had to go with airbnb.

Still it wouldn’t be until 5:00 when I got the room, so I went around to the department stores to try to get a pot grip, but the camping departments seemed only to have a very vestigial palette. Still had a bit of time so I sent a spot OK and then went out to collect my room.

Ethel is a very pleasant person and she got my wifi sorted out after a little bit, and this is a spacious place and the dog demands a lot of attention. Could park the car in the carport. Around 6:00 went down to town to the Hong Kong Chinese Takeaway for pork fried rice for $9.5 which I ate about half of in the shop while watching the news of the cyclone.

Apparently the accommodation situation is difficult because of a surf life-saving meeting, exacerbated by the storm. Anyway, it’s now off to work.