Bays Galore

Yes! After the arty deco-y Napier in Hawke's Bay, I couchsurfed with a
friend of a friend in Gisborne in Poverty Bay... When Cook (you can't escape
the guy, can you?) got there for fresh water and food supply, the Maori told
him to go get stuffed hence the name... Anyhoo, party time in Gisborne with
my new friend Keryn; there's not much to do there really so it was cool to
drink, drink more and go to a local show. I also saw this insane Aussie band
called The Goons od Doom. They were hilarious. I also saw two cops run after
a kid in the street. That was fun... On to the next Bay: Bay of Plenty
(guess what Cook found there?) The town is called Whakatane (prononce:
fah-ka-tah-nee) Absolutely great: perfect weather; I did a 16km hike around
the Bay and scenic reserves yesterday; and today I got on another roller
coaster of a ferry ride to get to White Island to check out one of the few
NZ's marine volcanoes. It was fantastic to see (and hear) steam coming out
of nowhere, streams of sulphuric water (it's almost boiling hot!) It kinda
feels like you're on the moon or something and since we're talking about
that, I can tell you that White Island sulphur smells like some exotic moldy
cheese to a french nose... Sweet! Off to Rotorua tomorrow. Catch ya'll
later.