Rere Falls and Rock Slide

Only 40 minutes away from Gisborne,  through some very pretty farmland, is Rere Falls.  At this time of year,  the autumn colors of the trees were a delight.  The falls were lovely,  quite a dramatic flat drop off.
Two kilometers down the road is the Rere Rock Slide.  Wow!  How exciting it was!  We got on our wet suit tops and grabbed the boogie board.  DH had a go first, mastering it beautifully and landing nicely. Then he had another go, this time with PB on his back.
The river was so,  so slippery,  it was really hard to get your footing with the water rushing over the rocks and the slimey surface underfoot.
The boys headed off, and this time DH started to go horribly sideways.  There was no easy way to control the slide,  you just had to go with it.  Fortunately,  PB clung to DH like a little monkey,  even turning so that he was heading the right way down the slide even though DH was sideways!
Then it was my turn.   The water was freeeeeeeeezing!  The slippery rocks were so hard to get across,  so I ended up going in closer to the side than I would have liked.   I set off bravely, only to have me and the boogie board turn right around so at I was heading down the slide feet first!   I was hooting and hollering in a rather unladylike fashion,  I must confess,  but made it to the bottom.  The water at the bottom was deep and so it was a fast kick to the edge of the pool,  to haul out onto the grass.
DH came down to confess that he'd stuffed up the videoing of it.   He got the start and the end,  but not me actually doing it.  (Just quietly,  grounds for divorce is my thinking).  But on reflection,  given the unorthodox approach and caterwauling, perhaps it's not a bad thing that there is no lasting evidence.
As we were having morning tea, some tourists arrived to have a look,  but couldn't be convinced to give it a go.
They got their car stuck in the mud, so DH had to once again get out the towing strop and save the day.

When we got to the top on the driveway to the falls,  we saw the sign predicting injury and death if you attempted the slide.  Oh.  Ok.  (It wasn't quite that bad, but certainly would have slowed us down somewhat had we seen it on entry!)

We popped back to the falls to look at some cool toadstools that looked liked a smurf village,  then back to Gisborne.
In the afternoon,  we took the bikes along the water into town and along to a little bridge.   We watched some school boys fishing off the wharf and even saw them catch one!  The walkway was cool,  it had a statue of Young Nick who spotted NZ when traveling with Captain Cook and of Captain Cook himself.  Rode home again for tea.