East Coast Sunrise

One time when I was younger, I decided I wanted to go see the sunrise out at Raglan. I took my sister and one of my friends with me. At no point during our journey did either of them mention to me the futility of attempting to view the sunrise, from a west coast beach of New Zealand. We got there and there was fog, and trees, and bushes in the way, and all I got for my efforts was a tiny sliver of sunlight bursting through the narrow gap between the landscape and the clouds. A few years later for our New Years 2000 celebrations, we decided to go to Long Bay beach on the east coast near Auckland to try and see the sunrise, after staying up all night. There were a lot of people on the beach at 5am that morning, unfortunately we were all disappointed due to low cloud. This year, I decided to try one last attempt at seeing the sunrise in the east, by heading out to Gisborne "First to see the light." I got up at 5am one morning and drove out to Wainui beach (as Gisborne actually faces South east, not east) and sat there for an hour. I just marvelled at the view, the changes colours of the sky and sea as the colours on the horizon changed gradually for about half an hour before the edge of the sun finally glimmered over the furthest point of the ocean. It was one of the most marvellous things I've ever experienced, and aside from one surfer and one kayaker who came along later, I had the whole wonderful beach to myself. It was amazing, I loved it. Then I went sightseeing around the other bays nearby - Spongey bay included, where the original lookout that used to be there had vanished into the ocean.