The JaYmes Escape

If Gisborne is the first city to see the sun each day then the lighthouse up on the East Cape, roughly 80 miles North of Gisborne, is the first place that isn’t a city. There aren’t many buses that take the 14 mile gravel track to the lighthouse before sunrise so when I was offered a lift I jumped at the chance. Unlike back in Gisborne on Sunday the weather was glorious and some amazing photos are on the way.

Hicks Bay, just North-West of the East Cape was an incredible place to stay. The hostel sits between two beaches and is run by local Maori who also organise fishing trips. I didn’t go out on the boat but they let me help skin and fillet some fresh fish to eat for dinner.

Today I travelled further North and West to Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty; where I’m hoping to visit the volcanic ‘White Island’.

On February 3rd 1931 the Hawke Bay region of New Zealand was devastated by an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. Buildings collapsed into piles of rubble, the area was pushed an extra 2 metres above sea level and of course, many died. Over the following months and years the port town of Napier was rebuilt largely in what was then the contemporary style, a style that came to be known as Art Deco. Today Napier is the most significant concentration of Art Deco buildings in the Southern Hemisphere and is thus known as the ‘Art Deco City’.

Some of New Zealand’s most renowned wines, including Church Road and CJ Pask are produced around Hawke Bay and in the region stretching up to the city of Gisborne, home of the ubiquitous Lindauer range. Gisborne, it is said, is the most easterly city in the world; although the world is round Gisborne is the closest city to the international date line - if you look out to the Pacific, somewhere in the distance it’s still technically yesterday. That’s why they say that Gisborne is the first city to see the sun rise on a new day, and why the town is self-dubbed ‘City of The Sun’.

Nothing could be more ironic for me however as Gisborne has been the coldest, wettest place I’ve yet experienced in New Zealand. The Pacific wind seems to have a nasty bite to it at this time of year. Still, the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow when I’m hoping to head up to the remote East Cape, which is possibly more genuinely “lands’ end” than anywhere else.

Photos aplenty are in the camera waiting for the usual upload opportunity.

It looks to me like this is shaping up to be the most significant British election for a decade; there seems to be a large group of people completely dissatisfied with Tony Blair but equally unimpressed with Michael Howard. There are some contrasting opinions from George Monbiot and Brian Eno about how to approach this problem, and Brent East, the North London constituency where I’m still registered to vote, seems to be one of those ‘key marginals’ at the centre of the psychological battleground.

I suspect that whatever happens on May 5th, we will see record numbers of votes being cast outside the two biggest parties. Peter Snow’s maths says that Tony Blair is almost certain to win in any case, despite the whining desperation of some labour pundits.

For those that are interested, it has been quite easy to arrange a proxy vote for Brent East, which, whilst it’s useful for me, seems somehow disturbing.

I’m currently visiting Art Deco town Napier; photos are on the way.

It’s going to be quite interesting watching the British election from the other side of the world. Here in New Zealand they view our electoral system as a bit of a throwback to the dark ages. In the early nineties they moved into the age of proportional representation here and for the most part it’s been a tremendous success. Of course the big parties haven’t liked it too much; in the current parliament the ruling Labour party has had to pander to the desires of the Greens to keep their legislation on-track, and the main opposition National party has lost a lot of ground to smaller newcomers with trendy names like ‘United Future’.

But it’s all good for the voter; with a coalition pretty much a certainty minority parties get a hand in and are no longer a ‘wasted vote’. Instead of one party getting to do whatever they want, they have to negotiate for votes; if something’s a bad idea it simply won’t fly, no matter how keen the government is on it. The Greens have managed to sustain New Zealand’s proud ‘GE Free’ (aka GM Free) status as well as their historic Nuclear-free status, and the public are right behind them.

Anyway, back in Blighty you look set for a classic two horse race with Tony’s cronies the firm favourite. How insanely boring. Watching these slimy idiots bicker about the pithy differences between their policies is a waste of time. When push comes to shove they never keep their word anyway. The best thing for British democracy right now would be a hung parliament and a coalition government. That way they have to behave.

Charles Kennedy might not have much chance of making it to number 10 but I’d love to see him being a complete pain in Tony’s backside. That would be priceless, and highly effective.

I’m back in ‘Welly’ for a while to see if there’s any work here; there are a couple of possibilities but nothing concrete as yet. I think the 18-seater Origin Pacific Jetstream I boarded at Nelson is the smallest aircraft I’ve ever flown in, but the ride was fairly uneventful.

You can check the New Zealand album for pictues from The Golden Bay, Wharariki beach and the Abel Tasman park which are now all online.