New Zealand Tour

Day 3 - Waihi to Rotorua
127km

 More strong winds last night, but at least I was in my tent and not battling them - I did need my ear plugs to lessen the howl of the gusts around me and the constant flapping of the tent.

 But mild winds this morning when I set off - even the sun was trying to poke it's face out! More of busy SH2 while I rode through Waimata and then stopped at Katikati for second breaky - just in time, as a rain shower was just developing - nothing too serious though, by the time I ate breaky it was almost over. I hung around town and enjoyed some of the many murals that this town is known for.

 On to Tauranga, a much bigger town than any of the others that I have passed through - this one even had a Subway sandwich shop - good place for a fresh lunch.

 So after a hearty lunch and a quick ride around town, I figured that I'd be OK for the challenging ride to Rotorua. Although only 60km to my destination, there was a gradual climb to Pyes Pa, after which the road became steep and undulating reaching an elevation of 500 metres. The rain started again and wind picked up too, so it was a very tiring afternoon's ride that took much longer than expected due to the steepness of some of the grades. The last 15km into Rotorua were, thankfully, for the most part downhill, so that helped a bit to recoup my energy.

 Once in town, I tried for a hostel bed for the night, but no chance, no way, especially as late as I was. This is a very popular destination for many backpackers and tourists, so even though there are many hostels, there was "no room at the Inn." Motels were just about full, and all that was left were the pricier ones, so tenting it was to be! Even the campground is crowded too! One bonus though, the ground is heated here; Rotorua is a thermal area, so there are vents, boiling mud holes and thermal springs everywhere - even the storm drains in town are steaming! And there's a rotten egg smell at every turn!

 I figure this to be a good place for a day off tomorrow to play tourist and take in some of the "steamier" sights.

I had fish & chips for dinner with a couple of beers - that sure perked me up!

In my tent here, the wind is starting to really howl again - even worse than last night. I just heard on the radio that the Wellington area had winds of 180km/hr today - lots of damage to power lines etc. Here we can expect winds up to 80km/hr tonight - batten down the hatches Basil!

 More the day after tomorrow, whatever that is!

Day 4 - Rotorua - Rest Day
0km

 Hey, I survived the wind storm last night - what a howler! But I'm pleased to say that the sun is out today; it's still breezy, and as long as the clouds don't block the sun it is quite hot - should be a good day for tourism!

 Observations...

 I'm finding New Zealand quite expensive in the food department. One reason is the very strong New Zealand dollar - when I first started planning this trip, their dollar was worth about 70 cents Canadian, now it's up to 92 cents! Quite a difference, and their prices would be on par with Canada if their dollar was still 70 cents - but it ain't, so right now a lot of things, food especially, seem very pricey to me. One caveat - tips are not expected here, so that helps a little when restauranting.

 Other stuff...

 There are hedgehogs here, which surprises me, as I thought that they were natives of Britain - maybe the Brit émigrés transplanted some here? Unfortunately, most of the ones I have seen were flat! - Just not quick enough for that Kiwi traffic.

 Lots of different types of birds here too, but I wish the damn things would sit still for a photo though! Haven't actually seen a Kiwi bird yet though - when I do, I'll get a picture of those buggers, they can't fly away!

 Not bad for biting bugs here either, I've only had a couple of bites in the last few days, from midges - mind you, it's probably too windy for the many of the little devils to fly! - They'll get me later, I'm sure - at least no sign of mozzies - yet!

 Hard to get a real coffee here - most of the cafes have espresso etc. But filter coffee has proved a bit more of a search. The bigger towns have McDonalds and Starbucks, so I've figured out where to head for a fix.

I made the mistake in one cafe of ordering coffee without asking what type they had - out came the waitress with the thimble of espresso - $3.00 thank you very much!

 I haven't met too many other cyclists - saw a couple on the road yesterday, they were heading for whence I came. And I met a German couple at the campsite in Waihi. There are lots of Brits and Europeans here in Rotorua - it's funny, the Brits are the older crowd and the younger backpackers all seem to be from elsewhere.

Canadian tourism could learn a lot from New Zealand though - especially as far as camping is concerned - campsites have kitchens, showers, flush toilets and some have TV lounges and swimming pools! All at very reasonable rates - the most I've paid for a tent site is NZ$12.00 per night, so I'm not complaining about that part of the economics. [In fact, the NZ$12.00 that I paid at that site was the most that I paid for a campsite on the whole tour]

  Oh, the campsite that I'm at has three big hot tubs, all use the natural mineral hot spring water - guess where I'm going later?

  One last thing, the ice creams are great here and they have Mars bars!

 Off to rubberneck around...

Lots to see and do in Rotorua - very touristy! First thing that I saw on the way to town was some collateral damage from last night's high winds. Quite a few big trees were blown down and there was other large bits of debris lying all over the place.

 I spent the whole day wandering around - it felt good to just take in the sights, eat, people watch, eat some more - get the picture? I had to do a quick museum tour, of course - the museum is in a grand old building facing the cricket pitch in the local town park. Rotorua Lake is adjacent to the park and much of the shoreline that I saw had cautionary signs regarding the thermal activity that abounds in this area.

 

Some Images from around Rotorua

Day 5 - Rotorua to Ohope Beach
104km

 A great ride today, even the weather seems to be cooperating - it's clouded over this afternoon, but it was sunny and warm all through my ride. As the Kiwis say, "the weather's fine." That is their description of any dry weather, "fine." Definitely minimum information from the weather people here! I guess that they don't want to scare the tourists off with what's really going to happen!

 The grades were not too bad today either, just a couple of groaners, but the landscape that I rode through more than made up for the few hills. Riding from Rotorua on SH 30, I passed by "Hell's Gate," where there a some geysers - the place was closed, but I managed to get some photos of the site from a nearby hilltop. Also enroute, I passed by three lakes, Rotoiti, Rotoehu and Rotuma - By the way, I hope that you're all following along with these names, many of which are real tongue twisters! Anyhow, traffic was light, and especially so after leaving the early morning bustle of Rotorua.

 No real second breaky today, but I've found that there are small tearooms all over the place - so it was tea and a cheese and onion pie - hot pies are a hot item over here, pardon the pun! You might not be able to get your bread and milk, but you will get a hot pie - fillings too numerous to list here!

 I stopped at Whakatane for a quick bite, and also for a visit to the local AA office for more roadmaps. I think that I mentioned that I picked up some maps near Auckland, and they gave me a free six months visitor's membership to the New Zealand AA - so all maps and member benefits are free - good deal eh? - I wonder if they'll tow me up the hills?

 From there, up and down another couple of killer hills to this campsite - beachside on the Bay of Plenty, South Pacific Ocean. I did get one spectacular downhill today, lots of hairpins and a clear road to ride them on. Although the hairpin bend I encountered a couple of days ago on the ride to Rotorua was something else; it was very steep, downhill, and I had to slow right down - I kept turning and turning and turning - I thought that I was going to disappear up my own arsehole - if you know what I mean! (if off-colour language offends you, don't read the previous sentence). The posted speed limit for that bend was only 15km/hr! I might add that it was raining too, which made it even more exciting!

 Anyway, here I am with beautiful white sand and warm water - and the place is almost deserted! Great facilities again - even a store (avec les refreshments) and fresh seafood nearby. Pretty civilised when there's a fridge to store a cold one - or two in!

 Well, I'd better go and cook up some one pot delicacy to throw these fresh shrimp into (Bay of Plenty, get it?) - life's tough!

 Oh, oh, I keep feeling the odd raindrop - Basil's looking for his sou'wester - do the no rain dance everyone!

Day 6 - Ohope Beach to Te Kaha
108km

 What fabulous scenery today - ocean-side on SH35 for pretty well the whole day. Lots of wave action, black sand beaches, etc., etc. There were some of those famous New Zealand hills again, but the weather, wind and scenery made up for the sweat and toil!

 I thought that I might be in for a rough day weather-wise; it was very grey this morning and it poured rain last night, but the sun and wind seemed to clear most of the grey away - still some good clouds blocking the sun, but for the most part it is quite warm - well it should be, it's supposed to be Summer here after all!

 It doesn't get light here until about 6:30 a.m., so I haven't been getting up too early on mornings anyway - usually best to wait to see what the day's like before packing my stuff away - I might have to stay an extra day if the weather's really crappy on a morning.

 Second breaky was in Opotiki - apparently some Hawaiians landed there and brought two fishes as gifts for the Maoris - Opotiki means place where two fish landed - Not much of a gift, but there it is!

 Once again, I'm in a nice ocean-side park. It's not very busy - I'm the only tenter in a huge area meant for about fifty tents. However, the other sites for campervans are filling up pretty quick.

 The wind's picking up again here; I listened to Radio New Zealand last night and they are forecasting westerlies of 120km/hr for some places on the North Island - hopefully I won't be at the mercy of that wind. After dinner, I'm going across the road to watch the big surf, there's some huge waves building up with this wind!

 How do you know that you're in a New Zealand campground? The young guys are playing cricket, not throwing a baseball around! Yeah, really!

 If the westerlies keep up, I should have another day of favourable wind tomorrow, but if they keep up after that, it's going to be a real slog into Gisborne.

 I passed another bike tourist today, young fellow from Germany - he didn't speak much English, so that's all I know! I was glad to see though, that at least one other cyclist carries more crap than me - his load made mine look light! He looked young and strong though, I'm sure that he won't throw too much away after some more New Zealand hills!

Day 7 - Te Kaha to Te Araroa
92km

 Boy, these miles are tough to accumulate, but that's not too surprising when I spend two-thirds of my day going uphill and the other third going down - those fast downhills are great, but there always seems to be an uphill next. The Kiwis sure didn't flatten out too much terrain before they built their roads - the grades aren't posted, but from experience I'm going to say that a lot of them are between 10% and 14%! - Yeah, some real knee-knackerers! So 100km per day seems to be all that I want to coax out of my body - for now anyway.

 Hills or no hills though, today's ride goes up as one of the best coastal rides that I have ridden. The ocean vistas were absolutely terrific for many, many miles this morning - a real roller-coaster of road though, with, as I said, some nasty little hills thrown in. The last 25km of the ride to Te Araroa was inland a bit, still good views, but mostly big hills and farmland until Hicks Bay when I met the coast again - and the 2km Pukeamaru hill. Well at least this motor camp was at the bottom of the downhill, so I ducked in here for the night. I'm very close to the ocean again, and the campground is very quiet - although the lady at the office says that they accommodate 500 campers normally in the earlier summer months - I'm glad that I missed that lot! Nice campground, a little run down when compared to the others that I've stayed at though. What's more, they do have mozzies here, and they've already been to visit I might add! - lets hope that they are few and far between!

 Talking about bugs, I forgot to mention my experience at Ohope Beach. I was reading in my tent late in the evening with my headlight on. When I looked up I could something scurrying across the top of my inner tent - between the fly and inner mesh. I swatted through the tent material and about four or five great big beetles tumbled down - these buggers had bodies about one and a half inches long - I've never seen beetles that big - long tentacles, the whole bit - I guess that the light was attracting them. In the morning there was couple of even bigger ones hiding under my panniers in the tent's vestibule - scared the crap out of Basil when he saw them! Apparently they are bush cockroaches - I hope that they're not too common!

 Weather was good (fine!!!) today and the westerlies were kindly at my back - tomorrow, who knows? - I'm still on SH 35 heading south en route to Gisborne where I should be in a couple of days.

 Most of Eastland, where I am riding seems to be Maori land, so even though there are miles and miles of beaches, they are, for the most part, deserted, as access seems to be restricted.

 Also, I have to say that I have definitely ridden past a lot more cattle farms than sheep farms - I expected the opposite - perhaps on the South Island the sheep farms will be bigger?

 Best find in the last couple of days - Cadbury's flake ice cream cones (99'S) - highly decadent!