Sunday – December 15, 2013

What a great ride.  We started a little late today (around 9:00a.m.) and were only going to cycle 30 kms to Tairua. We took the ferry over the bay which cut out about 10 kms and one set of hills.  The second hill coming into Tairua was a saddle hill, which basically is a ridge line.  You climb up to the ridge and then are able to cycle for about 10 kms on the ridge and then come down the other side into Tairua. It was lovely riding, rolling hills on the ridge but easily managed.

We got to Tairua at around 11:00 a.m. and decided after a snack for lunch that we would carry on.  After lunch we decided to see if we could get to Whangamata. If we got too tired or hit more hills, we would have been able to cut it short in Opoutere, it had basic facilities with a YHA camp site.  The turn off to Opoutere was about 10 kms short of Whangamata, so we pushed on.  We both felt really good that we could do 65 kms on a hilly section.  The actual elevation gain was more than we had ridden on the Coromandel but the hills were not as steep.

Very proud of ourselves today.  Whitianga is a tourist seaside town, Whangamata is a surfing Town.