Wednesday February 5, 2014

There comes a time as a touring cyclists when you really cannot face another day of hills, traffic and cycling.  Today was that day and we both felt the same way.  We decided to take the bus to Waitomo and have a good rest day and touristy day tomorrow black water rafting.

The bus left at 2:30 and we were on it with the bikes and gear.  It would have been a hilly 85 kms to Waitomo, I at least was pleased to take the bus, Ralf took this time to edit some of his photos.

However, disaster struck when we arrived at the Big Apple – Hangatiki (the bus stop) at Waitomo.  The bus driver hadn’t seemed too keen on taking the bikes and quickly got everything out of the luggage compartment and away he went.  The disaster, one of my panniers was still on the bus.  Panic….. All my clothes.  I quickly made phone calls, there was another bus coming south that might be able to connect with our bus and get my pannier on the bus.  No – too slow on the communication front.  Perhaps the next bus going to Auckland could communicate with our driver.  No – too slow on the communication front.  Contacted the office in Auckland again, we might be able to get it on the bus coming to Waitomo tomorrow.  Could I call in the morning around 7:00.  We don’t have a cell phone with us. What a nightmare.

We cycled to the campsite at Waitomo set up tent and met a nice German touring cyclist (Michael) who we chatted to and explained our predicament.  He is also cycling around the world but taking little chunks out of it.  Canada – Newfoundland to Montreal; Chile; now New Zealand. (1xumdiewelt.jimdo.com) his blog address means 1 times around the world.  He has written it in German with the help of google translator for the English.

Tuesday February 4, 2014

We were woken up by the sound of helicopters going over the tent.  It was very misty, not sure how they could see where they were going.

Thank goodness we decided not to push on yesterday.  The hills kept coming this morning.  At least we started today with fresh legs.  It would have been a tough ride yesterday, it was a good ride today.

This section of the road often reports slips.  They have built a berm to stop major slips covering the road, but there is a warning sign not to stop on this section as slips can occur at any time.

Today should have been a rest day, but Taumaruni is not a Town worth staying in too long.  I think the only reason you would come to Taumuruni is because the Forgotten World Highway starts/finishes here and you can tramp (hike) from here through the National Park to the volcanoes. Taumuruni does not have a lot to offer.  In the iSite there is a map which shows that Mount Tongariro erupted in 2012 and is currently considered an active volcano.  The lady at the iSite said “Not too worry as it is still smoking which means it is letting off steam and not building up to explode”.  The information sheet states “Another eruption could happen without warning, the main dangers are burning ash clouds and flying rocks”.

If we are counting natural disasters, we have avoided two earthquakes (Eketahuna), the tail-end of a cyclone (Auckland), 2 landslides (Haast) and now an active volcano.  What could possible go wrong.  This country may not have beasties that can hurt you but it certainly has some natural hazards.

Taumuruni is a little on the run down side and appears to have some gang related problems.

Sometimes we get to see the poorer side of life in New Zealand, it isn\’t always beautiful scenery and nice picturesque towns.

The history of this area is primarily Maori, the European settlers pushed the Maoris back into this area.  The Maori King reportedly through his hat onto a map and claimed it as Maori.  It is called King\’s Country.

We have decided to push on tomorrow and get to Waitomo Caves (85kms).  This is where we are going to do the Blackwater rafting, we will have our rest day on Thursday.  I think we are both ready for a good rest day.

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.

Sunday February 2, 2014

We were up at our usual time of 6:15 and both of us left the cabin to go for a quick wash.  Ralf forgot that it had a Yale lock and closed the door, effectively locking us both out of the cabin.  There is a disadvantage of running a campsite, some ‘idiot’ is going to wake you up at 6:15 am on a Sunday morning so that he can get back into his cabin.  Apparently the owner was very understanding and gave Ralf the spare key and we were able to carry on with breakfast and the regular routine of a touring cyclist.  I hope the owner of the campsite was able to get back to sleep.

The Forgotten World Highway is a narrow highway with no shoulders, hilly and very winding.  It is an awesome road for cyclists, motorbike riders and tourists, not so much for people who need to get somewhere in a hurry.  The few cars gave us plenty of room, and even waited until it was safe to pass.

We knew we had three fairly big climbs today before we stopped at Whangomomona but they were all very manageable and because the road was not busy it was a great ride.

The scenery was what I had thought all of New Zealand was going to be like.  It is what I remember seeing from my geography lessons in school.  Now I know a lot of you are saying – that was a long time ago.  I think that is why this highway is called the Forgotten World Highway.

It is almost as if time has stood still in this area.  The farming is predominantly family farms, and primarily beef cattle and sheep as opposed to dairy cattle, the villages are small, blink and you will miss them.  Ralf said after one village we cycled through that the dot on the map was bigger than the village.

At one of our rest stops we found a blackberry bush.  I had space in my front pannier, Ralf had an empty plastic bag. Ralf picked about half a pound of blackberries for us to have for dessert – very nice.

When we got to Whangomomona, I spotted a couple of Bike Fridays (bicycles).  I have only seen these in the States before, so we got chatting to the owners, who told us about a lovely place to stop 20 kms further on.  We had decided to stay in Whangomomona because it had a domain campsite, a pub and other things to look at.  At 1:30pm the weather was also getting quite hot (over 28 degrees) we had already cycled over 3 saddles and we would have to cycle to the top of the next big one before we stopped.  So we decided to stick to the original plan and settle in the domain campsite.  It is very basic, but has every thing we need hot showers, toilet, and a kitchen.  We had interesting neighbours – 2 French girls and a guy, who had a very unique way of airing their clothes.

We now have a passport for the Republic of Whangomomona.

Whangomomona decided to become a republic after the local government changed the District borders effectively splitting the area into different Districts. The stubborn streak came out in local residents and they struck their independence if only for one day every year or two to show that they did not like this decision being made without consulting the residents first.  The major decision to celebrate their independence was originally made within the four walls of the local hotel back in 1988.  It is now used as a fundraising event for the local community.  The first president lasted 10 years before taking early retirement, the second president “Billy the Kid” only survived in the position for 18 months before the pressure of power overwhelmed him and he died in active duty “weed eating” on the Town hill (he was a goat).  Tai the poodle resigned after an attempted assignation.  The current incumbent (Murt Kennard) was duly elected in 2005 without a single tax dollar being spent.

Another Town with a sense of humour.

Small world as it is we met a couple tonight from Sheffield, they live at Peniston which is a couple of miles from where we had our pub in Oughtibridge.

No internet service in this area.

Saturday February 1, 2014

Yesterday, while I was doing the laundry, Ralf went into the Town of Patea and got the fixings for our evening meal.

While there he spotted a giant whale bone, a replica Maori canoe and a lovely church. He wanted to stop at these sites this morning to show me and take a better photo from the lookout over the black sand dunes and the coastal cliffs.

Because we were in a cabin we had everything ready to go last night and we were able to make an earlier start. The whale bones were a sculpture that represented a Maori legend.

This area was the site of Maori land wars in the 1800’s. The canoe is a replica of Turi and his Aotea canoe from which the local tribe are descendants. It was put into place in 1933.

Today\’s ride was quite hilly, but we had the wind at our back and were able to move along quite quickly. We started the day at an elevation of 65 metres and finished the day at 310 metres with a lot of ups and downs in between.

We were in Hawera by 11:15 and decided to stop for lunch. We spotted this little old lady (probably in her 70’s) checking out our bikes which were leaned against the café window. She was particularly interested in Ralf’s. Ralf suggested that she might hop on and try to ride away with it, I suggested that she might just be looking for some fit young man to make a move on. I was right, she came into the café and asked Ralf how far he had come and where we he was going to, definitely making a move on him. I answered her questions just to let her know that he was taken:)  She wished us safe travels and went on her way.

There is a water tower in Hawera which you can climb the 215 steps to the top.

Anyone who knows Ralf will know that if there is a tower that he can climb he will climb it. It costs $2.50 per person to climb the stairs which of course we did.

Fontera is one of the largest co-operative dairy producers in New Zealand they produce over 1 billion litres of milk a year.  That\’s a lot of milk, you would think milk would be inexpensive in New Zealand, but it isn\’t, because it isn\’t subsidized.   They also export a tremendous amount of powdered milk to China.

After lunch we headed to King Edward park which has the extremely rare Wendy statue in the park. It is one of only two in the world.

We arrived in Stratford at 2:00pm and were at the campsite by 2:30. We asked the price on a cabin, and got a deal. Not as cheap as last night but still a good deal. Tomorrow we are heading of on the Forgotten World Highway and may have to freedom camp for a couple of nights. We have now been on the road for almost 2 months and have cycled 2,768 kms. Awesome and still loving it.

We often see blackboards outside of cafes with funny slogans on them, here is the funny for the day.

Friday January 31, 2014

A great start for todays ride a 14% hill to walk up !!  The rest of the day was hilly but no other hills that we had to walk up, which means it was a good day.  At about 12:30 we were only 20 kms from our end point and decided to stop for lunch in Waverley.  When we started again the wind had picked up and was blowing us a little sideways.  Which was a little scary on occasions as on this section of Highway 3 there wasn’t much of a shoulder.  We negotiated the 20 kms safely and arrived in the small Town of Patea, we spotted the sign for the only camp site in Town and followed it to a small Council run site.

No one was here for us to register.  We checked out the price of a cabin that was posted on the kitchen door, the doors were open on two of the cabins we decided that we could afford a cabin for the night.  There was an honesty box where we could pay for the cabin, if no-one came around for us to pay.  We made ourselves comfortable in the smallest of the cabins and hoped no-one had reserved it.  We figured it was such a small out of the way site it wouldn’t be very busy.  Wrong the other two cabins were booked for the week-end.  It was o.k. when the person who manages the site came around he was really nice and let us stay where we were.   The cabin cost $25.00 and we had full use of the fully equipped kitchen and free laundry, a great find

Today we got our first view of Mount Teranaki, a dormant volcano – let’s hope it stays that way.  We took photos and Ralf said  “Wouldn’t it be great if a cloud was over the top of it so it looks like the beginnings of an eruption” well his wish came true.

Our camp site in Patea was very close to the beach which had fabulous black sand dunes. We had a walk up to the lookout and then down to the river estuary before cooking dinner.

As we had plenty of time in Patea, I thought I might have a chance to update the blog but no internet service here.  The first place in New Zealand where we couldn’t connect to the net, when we wanted to.

This was my afternoon shot of the coastline near our camp site.

Thursday January 30, 2014

We knew today was going to be a long day both cycling and time taken.  We wanted to see the giant catamaran and have a wander around Foxton as it has some nice older buildings and history.

The catamaran was built in Palmerston North and they transported it to Foxton Beach to be launched for two reasons.  The first reason was that it is the closest point to Palmerston North and the second was that Foxton will have a “King Tide” on Saturday so this monster will actually be able to get out to sea.  Today there was going to be a high tide at 11:00 am and that is when they would put it in the water.  We were not going to stay to watch that, but it was interesting to see the cranes get ready to lift it.  I had visions of a Titanic type launch, but no – they were using cranes to plop it in the water.

This event was obviously of interest to a lot of people in the Town and surrounding area.  At 8:00 there were already over 25 people sitting around.

After a little wander around Foxton we started the long ride at 9:30 am.  Right from the get go we had a steady side-wind, we decided to do the 10 minute switch from the start.  It really helps, to have that 10 minute break behind Ralf before I am fighting against the wind again.  Actually because it wasn’t a head wind it wasn’t too bad to cycle against.

We stopped at the Town of Bulls for lunch.  Think of a pun with Bull in it and it was used in this Town. Consta-bull for the police station, Live-a-bull for a Real Estate office, Bank-a-bull for the bank.  It was very funny.

The scenery today was rural with a few hills thrown in at the end.  All the hills were very manageable, although the wind did pick up towards the end of the day which made them a little challenging, but nothing two fit mid-fifty year olds couldn’t manage.  We have definitely got fitter and leaner since being in New Zealand and cycling over 2,500 kms helps as well.

We both felt good after cycling 97 kms. I was going to suggest adding a few more ks around the block, just so that we could say we have done a metric century, but I was hungry and looking forward to a big bowl of pasta and a glass of wine.

Tomorrow we have decided on a shorter day approximately 61ks. The approximation is due to the fact that you are never exactly sure where the camp site is going to be located.  Sometimes it is in the Town and other times it can be 3-4kms outside of the Town like the one we are staying in tonight.  There was one closer to the Town behind a pub, but the lady at the iSite didn’t recommend it.  So here we are at a “Top Ten” 5 kms out of Town, right on the River Whanganui, the longest navigable waterway in New Zealand.

Wednesday January 29, 2014

We are now definitely back on the North Island!!  The people in the north seem to be a lot friendlier and helpful.  Every time we stopped to look at the map or just to look at the scenery, someone would stop and ask us if we needed help, where were we going did we know the way etc.

Yesterday on the way back from the car museum, Ralf had found a cycle trail which took us out of Paraparumu on a safe and scenic trail to State Highway 1.  When we got to the point that he had joined it we noticed that it appeared to carry on away from the Highway but in the direction that we were headed.  An older cyclist on a steel frame road bike approached us, (his sister lives in London Ontario)  he directed us along the Kipiti Coastal Cycle Trail which kept us of the Highway for about 20 kms.

When we got to a park and wasn’t sure which way to go an older woman who was obviously a school teacher before she retired put us on the right path again.  Now you are asking why I thought she was a school teacher. Well, I have been making an appalling job of pronouncing these Kiwi place names.  She corrected me and told me that the words are broken up at the end of each consonant Paraparaumu becomes Par–apar–aum-u not Para-para-umu.  She then pointed to another Town on the map and told me to pronounce the Town.  Had to be an old school marm.

At some point we knew we had to join State Highway 1 again, but we kept trying to find more coastal routes which unfortunately added about 10 kms to our day.  It was a nice route.

We stopped at Otaki for lunch, this should have been 22 kms from Paraparaumu, but because of our diversions we had cycled 37 kms.  Scenic routes are always longer.  Otaki is a small Town that has numerous ‘outlet stores’  including one for IceBreaker merino wool clothing.  Most of the clothes we have with us are IceBreaker merino wool.  However, the clothes we bought in Canada were actually cheaper than in NZ, figure that one out.  Although I must say we bought all of our clothes from Sojourn and they were on sale.

Due to our scenic start of the day we arrived at the Town of Foxton after the iSite had closed (4:00 pm).  We found the campsite in Foxton Beach and were told about the Giant catamaran that is being launched tomorrow.  We will go down to the dock and see the Giant catamaran before we leave tomorrow and have a little wander around the Town which has a giant windmill. I spotted it first.

The area was settled by Dutch people and that is why there is a giant windmill in the centre of Town.

Monday January 27  and Tuesday January 28, 2014

(Public Transport)

We should be heading north today.  However, after spending the bus trip updating the text for the blog, picking and sizing the photos on the ferry crossing. I asked Ralf if we could have another rest day so that I could update everything.  We needed to do some washing and I need to clean the bikes.  There is an automotive museum in this Town, the biggest one in the Southern Hemisphere.  I have sent Ralf off to the museum and I am catching up on mundane things – the washing is done, the blog is updated and now I am going to clean my bicycle.

This campsite is a very small site, each site has its own toilet and shower room.  Something I have never seen at any other site.  It has been in this location for 80 years – Resort is a term used loosely.

When Ralf gets back he can add a bit about the museum and we are now up to date.

The car museum started as a private collection, it had six vintage cars.  It now has over 350 cars, motorbikes, bicycles and a Gypsy Moth airplane. A very few items have been donated by local car enthusiasts.  Therefore the bulk of the collection was bought during his lifetime.  Before the owner died he set up a trust fund to ensure the collection continued to be maintained.  One of the curators I was talking to offered to drop the rope on any car that I fancied being photographed with for our blog.  I happened to be standing in front of a German Mercedes staff car, it seemed very appropriate.

There are so many vintage/classic cars in New Zealand and this is how they get here.  I found out from the museum curator that most car enthusiasts will go to the United States and purchase a vintage/classic car for $4,000 to $6,000 ship it to New Zealand for about $6,000 restore the car and the selling value can be anywhere from $35,000 and $40,000.  The old classic/vintage cars do not need to be converted to a right-hand side drive.  However a new vehicle must be converted. Buying a Dodge Ram 2013, shipping it to NZ for $6,000, paying $30,000 to convert the truck to a right-hand drive still makes the truck cheaper than buying it in New Zealand. I have only seen one Dodge Ram truck in New Zealand! Lots of Toyotas.

Sunday January 26, 2014

We were on the road early, as it was going to be another long day.  The first 25 ks or so were into a headwind – right from the start Ralf and I took it in turns to be at the front.  Even so by the time we got to Rakia and the giant salmon, I was getting tired and was looking at alternative places to stop for the night, maybe even stopping at 60 ks.

The road again was flat and boring.  The Rakia Gorge bridge is the longest bridge on Highway 1 and it is 1.6kms long with no shoulder.  My little legs were pumping trying to stay ahead of the traffic.

After Rakia, the good people of Canterbury Council decided to plant some trees which created the perfect wind break.  Our speed picked up and we arrived in Christchurch at 2:30 pm.  We found the InterCity bus terminal, which due to the earthquake was working out of a construction trailer and discovered there was a bus that left for Picton this afternoon.  We decided to take it and we will be in Picton tonight.  We will be able to get the earlier ferry to Wellington and get a few miles outside of Wellington tomorrow afternoon to the first campsite at Paraparaumu.

It was very interesting taking the bus up to Picton from Christchurch.  It had taken us 5 days to cycle from Picton to Christchurch, it took the bus 5 hours.  As we crossed the same terrain we realized that we had done some serious hills on the way down.  Crossing the Hunderlees from the opposite direction – these were big hills whichever way you came at them.  That was a great accomplishment for us.