Tuesday December 17, 2013

We are actually doing what we said we would do and that is to take each day as it comes.  No planned route, just go where we want to, when we want to.  Absolutely amazing for us both to be so easy going and not even concerned about not planning anything days ahead.

We decided to take the rail trail to Te Arohoa via Paerora.  The trail was a little bit steep to start of with but then went to a very easy ride.

The trail followed the route of the old gold mining trains.  We stopped at an historic site that showed an old Mine site.  The population at this site was over 2000 people in the early 1900\’s.  It had Ore Kilns  a crushing area and an area set aside for cyanide tanks, apparently a New Zealander invented how to use a method to separate the gold from the ore using a cyanide mix.

It was a lovely route, along the river to Paerora and the trail was easily managed on the loaded touring bikes.

We had to go through a tunnel which was almost 1 kilometre long, headlights on for the first time.

We stopped in Paerora for lunch which is another Town with a giant roadside attraction.  Paerora is a soft drink similar to sprite but is made with local mineral water.  It tastes good.

After lunch we carried on to Te Aroha.  The trail was through farming country and we had to cross a lot of concrete cattle grids.

About 8kms outside of Te Aroha we went back on to the road as the rail trail had gone from crushed gravel to a chip and seal covering.  It was harder on the bikes and the riders.  Tonight we are staying in a Youth Hostel for the second time.  The first one had tent sites, this one we are actually in our own room and only costs about $15.00 more than a camp site.

Opposite the Information Centre (iSite) I spotted a Contract Bridge Centre.  ARG (the Amazing Race Gnome wanted to go in and play, but we told him we had to find a room first.