Things to do in The East Coast
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Café Ujazi
Ujazi folds back its windows and lets the alternative vibe spill out onto the street. The superb coffee, substantial breakfasts and sparkly staff are a great hangover remedy. Try the rewana special – a big breakfast on traditional Maori bread.
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East Coast Museum of Technology & Transport
The East Coast Museum of Technology & Transport is an improbable collation of rusty tractors, lawn mowers, engines, spanners, ploughs, ovens, chainsaws, trucks, pumps, harvesters, motorbikes and so on – a shrine to peoples’ inventive capacity or their ability to horde junk?
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Cabana Bar
This legendary music venue of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s died in 1997, but thanks to some forward-thinking, toe-tapping folk, it’s risen from the grave. Visit its website (www.cabana.net.nz) to see who’s on, then get down there and shake your thang.
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Kilim Café
Authentic Turkish cuisine in a rather smart cafe environment, adorned with suitably Ottoman cushions and wall hangings. Kebabs, felafel, hummus, dolmas, pide and meze – all fresh and every one tasty. Eat in or take away.
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Pipi
Shockingly pink with candy stripes and mismatched furniture, Pipi cheekily thumbs its nose at small-town conventionality. The food focus is on simple pasta dishes and Roman-style thin-crusted pizza.
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Filter Room
Surrounded by orchards, these folk offer a large range of beers and ciders, all brewed on-site, plus a $12 tasting tray and tummy-filling food.
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Ocean Spa
A spiffy waterfront pool complex that includes a beauty spa, gym and cafe.
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Marineland
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Morere Hot Springs
Just out of Wharerata State Forest, 55km from Gisborne, Morere Hot Springs burble up from a fault line in the beautiful Morere Springs Scenic Reserve. You might want to tackle the bushwalks (20 minutes to two hours) before taking the plunge. The main swimming pool is near the entrance, but a five-minute streamside walk through virgin rainforest leads to the bush setting of Nikau Baths. It’s actually ancient seawater that bubbles to the surface here at around 50°C, cooling by 10°C before being pumped into the small stainless-steel baths.
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Ngati Porou Visitors Centre
The welcoming Ngati Porou Visitors Centre has authentic local art for sale, but more importantly offers tailored cultural tours, including trips to Hikurangi. Standard options are a 4WD guided tour to Maui Whakairo (four hours), a sunrise tour (departs 4.30am), and guided tours to the summit (eight-hour/overnight). Prices run from $165 to $500 but vary greatly according to numbers. It also runs a pick-up/drop-off service to the mountain (each way $20 to $50), and can arrange marae stays, fishing, diving, horse trekking, surfing and kayaking.
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Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery
The Hawke’s Bay Museum & Art Gallery is a repository for a wide range of interesting collections and showcases these in permanent displays of Maori artefacts and a fascinating 1931 earthquake memorial gallery (do watch the deeply moving film). There are also excellent locally curated exhibitions and touring shows. It closed from late 2010 for major redevelopment, set to re-open in 2013; revamp plans look exciting.
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National Tobacco Company Building
The National Tobacco Company Building is arguably the region’s deco masterpiece and is located a short ride from the city centre in Ahuriri. Built in 1933, it combines art-deco forms with the natural motifs of art nouveau. Roses, raupo (bulrushes) and grapevines frame the elegantly curved entrance. During business hours it’s possible to pull on the leaf-shaped brass door handles and enter the first two rooms.
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USSCO Bar & Bistro
Housed in the restored Union Steam Ship Company building (hence the name), this place is all class. The talented chef-owner demonstrates silky kitchen skills through a varied and exciting menu featuring the likes of roast duck with coconut sauce, crispy polenta and braised red cabbage. Devilishly good desserts and a drinks list sporting plenty of local wines and NZ beers. Live piano Tuesday to Saturday.
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Tairawhiti Museum
The Tairawhiti Museum focuses on East Coast Maori and colonial history. Its gallery is Gisborne’s arts hub, with rotating exhibits, and the permanent display of ‘Shutterbug Jack’s’ photographs is not to be missed. There’s a tearoom-style cafe overlooking Kelvin Park, and outside is the reconstructed Wyllie Cottage (1872), Gisborne’s oldest house.
The Te Moana Maritime Museum occupies a wing of the Tairawhiti complex. When the Star of Canada foundered on a Gisborne reef in 1912, the ship’s bridge and captain’s cabin were salvaged, installed in a local home, then later moved here for restoration. Displays on waka, whaling and Cook’s Poverty Bay visit pale be…
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Harstons
The place for live music and DJs. Housed in a former piano showroom which has converted surprisingly well into a music venue (good acoustics, nice dance floor), Harstons brings national and occasionally international artists to town to entertain the late-nighters. A great attempt at big-city sophistication in a city that quite possibly doesn’t appreciate it.
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Opera Kitchen
This modern and stylish cafe has an interesting menu including healthy brekkie options, such as strawberries with passionfruit-curd yoghurt. For the less calorie conscious the full breakfast is a real winner, too. Heavenly counter food, great coffee and friendly staff round things out nicely. Eat in or outside in the suntrap courtyard.
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Diva
The most happening place in Havelock, Diva offers good value lunch (from fish and chips to Caesar salad) and a bistro-style menu featuring fresh seafood and seasonal specialities. Designed to within an inch of its life, the interior is divided into flash dining room and groovy bar (snacks from $5), plus lively pavement tables.
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National Aquarium of New Zealand
The National Aquarium of New Zealand is a modern complex with a stingray-inspired roof. Inside are a crocodile, piranhas, turtles, eels, kiwi, tuatara and a whole lotta fish. ‘Behind the Scenes’ tours (adult/child $31/16) leave at 9am and 1pm and qualified divers can swim with sharks (dive $68, gear hire $36).
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Eastwoodhill Arboretum
Arboreal nirvana, Eastwoodhill Arboretum is 35km northwest of Gisborne. Staggeringly beautiful, you could easily lose a day wandering around the 25km of themed tracks in this pine-scented paradise. It’s the country’s largest collection of imported trees and shrubs, but the birds love it just the same.
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Bookshop Café
Situated above Muirs Bookshop in a heritage building, this place has stripped-brick walls, exposed rafters, lovely leadlights, and a veranda over the street, along with a small but sweet selection of counter food and excellent salads. Fans of Supreme coffee and literature may need to be forcibly removed.
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Taste
They haven't quite nailed the décor – it's too brightly lit to be bohemian and too grungy to be chic – but once you're sitting on the balcony admiring the streetscape the interior becomes irrelevant. Both the menu and cocktail list are flavoursome enough to get your tastebuds buzzing.
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Misty River Café
A little bit of continental chic on the functional high street, this darling little cafe makes a lip-smacking waldorf salad as well fresh ham, pasta, nachos and other global favourites. Drop-dead-gorgeous baking. All made from scratch, and to order (enquire about the chicken-salad sandwich).
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Hawke’s Bay Opera House
Although you wouldn’t guess from the sturdy Spanish-Mission exterior, its lavish art-nouveau heart betrays it as an earthquake survivor. Built in 1910, it’s recently had a multimillion-dollar refit and a modern plaza and foyer added. Tours take place during Art Deco Weekend.
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Kahungunu Marae
Not far from the Nuhaka roundabout is Kahungunu Marae. From the street you can note the carving at the house’s apex of a standing warrior holding a taiaha (spear). It’s less stylised than most traditional carving, opting for simple realism.
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East End Café
In the same building as the Gaiety Theatre, the East End is a breath of fresh air with its spacious interior, toasted sandwiches ($6), fabulous friands, and a concise blackboard ranging from morning eggs to pizza and seafood chowder. Great coffee and juices, too.
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