Gisborne Airport receives daily Air New Zealand flights from Auckland (about 1 hour). There are no direct flights from Wellington or Christchurch — you connect via Auckland.
By road, Gisborne is 5–6 hours from Auckland via State Highway 2 through Napier, or you can take the longer but more spectacular route via the East Cape — State Highway 35 circuits the entire cape and takes 2 days to do properly. The roads are sealed throughout but narrow and winding in places. There is no train service to Gisborne since the Palmerston North to Gisborne line closed.
InterCity bus services connect Gisborne to Napier and Rotorua.