Monday February 3, 2014

The day started of very misty and damp, but by the time we had eaten breakfast and packed the wet tent away the sun was burning of the mist and we knew it was going to be another gorgeous day.

The scenery once again was right out of my school text books.

However, there were no Towns between Whangomomona and Taumaruni, we were in the back country, 70 kilometres with no place to stop for lunch.  That was o.k. we had peanut butter and bread and made our own lunch.

Twelve kilometres of this State Highway is an unsealed road, which means it is gravel.  Have you ever heard of a major road in any country being unsealed (gravel).  This section is in a National Park with the Tangaraku gorge running along side the road, it is beautiful, but really …. unsealed.

At some stage in the \’design\’ of this road, the engineers decided that instead of going over a hill, they would put a tunnel through the hillside instead.  The road through this tunnel was lowered in 1983 to allow for the triple-decker stock trucks to go through.  Note the wooden arches and single-lane.

An interesting incident on the way today Ralf noticed a cow on the side of the road, it had apparently fell of the cliff above the road – poor thing.  Ralf said it was still alive, we stopped at the next farm house to tell the farmer about it.  He asked Ralf  “Do you think she will stand”  Ralf replied “Not with at least 2 broken legs – it was a big cliff that she had fallen from”.   About an hour or so later the local vet passed us in a van and gave us a wave, I am not sure if he knew that we had reported it or was just being friendly.

The ride was a lovely ride – up until the last 20 kms when the hills kept coming one after another – the sun was hot and I was exhausted.  I had it my mind to get to Taumarunui (89 kms), but when Ralf saw that there was a DOC (Department of Conservation) camp site 20 kms outside of Taumarunui he suggested we stop for the day – it was 2:30 our usual time to stop.  I wanted to push on, surely we could do another 20 kms. Then another hill presented itself which had a 14% grade (I thought I was back in the Coromandel) and it literally became a push up the hill.  I was done for the day.  Although as we went down the very rough gravel road to the camp-site, I thought to myself surely we aren’t going to have to cycle another 5 kms on this stuff. Fortunately it was only 500 metres and we were at our very basic campsite.  Celeste, you would have definitely quit at this campsite – rustic toilets, water from a cistern and an outdoor kitchen.

As soon as we got the tent set up we went for a swim in the river – to get the grime of the road of us – Ralf and Jacky polluting New Zealand’s waterways (sorry New Zealand).  The water was cold but felt great.

We chatted to an older couple who were in their camper van and asked how we found out about this rustic site – we have noticed that sometimes Kiwis like to keep these little gems to themselves and don’t want a lot of tourists finding out about their quiet country getaways.  I can understand why.

No internet here – just peace and quiet.