We left Rotorua at 7:45. The first 15 kms from Rotorua had a concrete cycle lane paralleling Hwy 5. It was very nice. The next 15 kms we were on Highway 5 but once again there was a wide shoulder. We took an easier route along Broadlands Road.
At 40 kms we stopped for a snack at a little grocery store in Reporoa. As we were eating an Elder Maori came to talk to us. What a lovely gentleman. We chatted about the culture and the fact that Maori’s are now living longer because they are beginning to trust the modern medicines. It will be interesting to meet more Maori and talk to them about their culture and history.
Reporoa Community
Ralf also spotted a Lawn Bowling Club. He decided that Lawn Bowling was far more civilized than curling, as it is played in warmer weather and you get cold curling.
The remaining 50 kms were pretty straight and the only interesting thing we saw were a few cows going for milking. Picture the bucolic scene of a herd of cows in the English countryside slowly meandering up to the barn to be milked. Then picture a few hundred cows being “driven” by quad bikes to be milked not quite the same vision.
A few. cows
The worst part of today was that we had a head-wind for the whole 80kms. My wonderful hubby stayed in front all the way.
After a wonderful breakfast where I made a perfect omellete with camembert cheese almost gourmet! We decided to have a walk around Rotorua. The first part of the walk had us walking past numerous hot pools, geysers and hot mud pools very interesting and a little scary to be so close to a natural phenomenon.
Note: Added this video to new website – 2025!
After passing this natural area we went to the Government Gardens. Absolutely beautiful. The history in this area is great.
Government GardensJacky the Tree Hugger – Redwood
We decided to check up on a couple of camping stores and bought Ralf some new Keen sandals and a few extra bits and bobs to make life a little easier. We met a really nice sales person called Emma, she asked how long we were going to be in Rotorua and wanted to take us around on Sunday. We will be gone by Sunday, she then proceeded to give us her email address as she will be back in Dunedin in February and will show us around there if we are in that area at the same time.
Tomorrow we are going to take a second rest day. So that I can finalize the blogs and Ralf can sort his photos. His photos are much better than mine.
Our longest distance to date. I must admit I was a little concerned about the distance, knowing that we would be hitting hills in the second half of the ride. However, we had little choice. It was either 74 to Rotorua or 63 to Ngongotaha.
We started early at 7:15. We had stayed in a pub/inn (Horse and Jockey) last night and were able to get up early and leave as soon as we had breakfast. I thought it might take us a while to do this ride and wanted to be on the road early. It was a great ride. We took Highway 27 through horse country it was a fairly quiet road. Although the speed limit on these roads is 100kph!! The road for the most part had a good shoulder and we were able to go quite quickly until our half-way point at Fitzgeralds Glade. We stopped there for ‘lunch’ at 10:30. Ralf had a salmon phyllo and kurmara pie (New Zealand sweet potato), I had a big savoury muffin, that kept us going until Rotorua. The Fitzgerald Café was in the middle of nowhere, but exactly half-way between Matamata and Rotorua, perfect.
The best part of cycling instead of being in a car is when you see something of interest you can stop and take photos or find out more about the area.
Tekoteko PoleA Row of Tekoteko Poles
The hills were not too bad steepest grade was 9%. My legs have finally remembered what they are supposed to be doing on hills. They also remembered they do not like hills! Just as an aside since cycling into Devonport from Chris’s place I have not been in my big gear once !!
Rest Stop Area
We took State highway 5 into Rotorua which has a wide shoulder, although the traffic was fast we were safe on the shoulder. We arrived in Rotorua found the iSite and a campground and we are taking a rest day tomorrow. We were going to take in the Maori Cultural show tonight, but at $110 per person decided against it. No doubt we will meet lots of Maori on this trip and we can talk to them one-on-one.
SH 5 into Rotorua
On our walk to the grocery store we came across the Night Market and Eat Streat. A little market and food stalls. We decided not to cook for ourselves tonight and partake of some street food. Lovely falafel, tabouleh, couscous and hummus and tzatziki and a salad.
I also found a newly published Pedallers Paradise book. These books give you loads of info on routes, terrain, bike shops, accommodation/campsites and services for the North and South Island.
I am writing this blog swigging wine from the bottle, because the kitchen does not have any glasses and Ralf is having a beer while reading the Pedallars Paradise book. Life is good.
Tonight as we walked back from the supermarket Ralf said, “I don’t think I have ever been more relaxed and calm”. This is what it is all about. The only thing we worry about is which way to pitch our tent.
This will be our first night sleeping in the tent when it is raining.
A short ride today, to get us to Matamata so that we could visit the Hobbiton Movie set.
The bicycle ride was through a valley on quiet roads. We had a bit of a head wind, but it was a lovely ride. Very similar to the Derbyshire Dales, my Mum would have loved New Zealand.
As soon as we got into Matamata we found the iSite, which was actually a Hobbit house and found a place to stay and reserved for the 11:45 Tour to Hobbiton. We caught the bus and then were introduced to Hobbiton. It was absolutely awesome. All of the tours have to be with an organized group, it costs $75.00 per person regardless if you get the bus from Matamata or if you drive out to the site. The guide was very good he gave us all the relevant information on the making of the movie and allowed us plenty of time to take photographs and we took lots. The tree above Bilbo Baggins house is the only fake tree in the ‘shire” and cost over one million dollars to make. It was only in the first movie for about 15 seconds. The site itself has been reconstructed really well, with lots of attention to detail, including washing on the lines, little ladders leaning against the fruit trees, English flowers and herbs, a great vegetable garden, there was even smoke coming out of the chimney of Bilbo Baggins’ house. At the end of the tour, we had a beer (included in the tour price) in the Green Dragon pub.
Hobbiton was much better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be really small, but it wasn’t, the whole village was reconstructed with over 50 hobbit holes, ranging from just a small door and a window in the hill-side to bigger ones with larger doors, bigger windows, gardens, and tables and tools. We were allowed to enter a couple of them, but not Bilbo Baggins house. The Green Dragon pub was really authentic to the movies. We loved it. Thanks Jim for treating us to this great afternoon.
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.
Start of the Rail Trail
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.
Old Gold Mine Site
It was a lovely route, along the river to Paerora and the trail was easily managed on the loaded touring bikes.
The Gorge
We had to go through a tunnel which was almost 1 kilometre long, headlights on for the first time.
Tunnel (1 km long)Bridge after the Tunnel
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.
Another Giant Attraction
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.
Another lovely ride today. We were ready to leave the campsite at 8:15 a.m. but remembered we had to get the $10.00 deposit back for a key for the fridge – some campsites have strange rules. The campsite office didn’t open until 9:00 am, poor planning on our part. We went to the post office to mail some postcards, yes I am still sending cards via snail mail. Then went back to the camp site to get our $10.00 back. We started the ride at 9:00 am. Again we had some hills, but mostly manageable. I only had to walk up one of them for a short way. Today’s scenery was very reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales.
When we got to Waihi, we were going to have lunch and then carry on to Te Aroha. However, as we came into the Town, Ralf spotted an old pumphouse and an old mine shaft.
Cornish Pumphouse
Waihi is known as the Town with the Heart of Gold. We found out why after Ralf went up the hill to the pumphouse and discovered a massive opencast gold mine. It is 250 metres deep – in the centre of Town. Planning permissions?
Open Cast Gold Mine in the Centre of Town
We decided to stay the night in Waihi and complete the perimeter walk 4kms around the top of the open cast mine. The massive Tonka Trucks looked like little Tonka trucks as they moved up and down the pit roads.
One of the sayings in the early 1900s was that you could get a house for a thumb.
The mining companies would pay compensation if you injured yourself in the mine. Miners would often cut off a digit and claim the compensation, then buy a house with the money.
Ralf in front of Tonka Truck
The Town centre also has a lot of murals and bronze statues. For a mining Town it is very nice.
Bronze – Kids Playing
The first rainstorm of the trip. We had just got back to the camp site after wandering around the Town and picking up some groceries when the heavens opened. The tent is waterproof.
We started to make dinner and chatted to another cyclist from Germany (George). He told us about the Kauraki Rail Trail to Te Aroha via Paerora. He said the trail was good and very scenic and safe – no logging trucks. Our route was going to take us to Tauranga and then across country into Rotorua.
Tomorrow we have changed our route, we are going out to Karangahake Gorge along a 21 kms rail trail to Paerora and finishing in Te Aroha about 44 kms total. It may be slow going as we are on loaded bikes and there is a lot to see. After that we will be heading down towards Matamata (Hobbiton) and onwards to Rotorua and Lake Taupo. We decided not to go down the coast road at this time as the roads are getting busier with campers and logging trucks and often the roads are narrow with little or no shoulders.
The beauty of having no set route and no set timetable. We were able to stop at a really interesting Town with a massive hole in the ground and find out about a different route for tomorrow.
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.
Climbing up to the Ridge
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.
View at the top of the Ridge
Very proud of ourselves today. Whitianga is a tourist seaside town, Whangamata is a surfing Town.
Now you would have thought that a rest day means, relaxing, lazing around the camp-site (which was very nice) or have a leisurely stroll through a small seaside Town. Well of course you do not know us very well. A great rest day means: A relaxing breakfast, then a nice wander around the Town of Whitianga, taking a small ferry over to Cook’s Bay and walking two hours to a lookout which showed the landing place of James Cook at Mercury Bay.
Lonely and Cooks Bay, NZ
On the walk we spotted a Tui bird, (no photo) they are bigger than a starling, black with odd white feathers sticking out of its chest, a couple of fan tail birds, which are the same size as a goldfinch but have this very elaborate fanned tail and an Oyster Catcher with chicks.
Oyster Catcher with Chicks
We also took a photograph of a Pohutukawa Tree, which is commonly known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree. They have this bright red flower on them that looks like a big red bauble.
New Zealand Christmas Tree
We have been able to update photos and had a nice relaxing day.
We gain a lot of attention at pull outs (view points)
Camp kitchens are great to meet people and discuss new routes, places we should visit, the difference between Canadian intensive farming and New Zealand intensive farming (with Eric from Kitchener/Waterloo area) and even politics with a young German couple (Wolfgang and Kristine).
