340 Km / 211 Miles
I was up and on the road by 9.30 after a slower morning. I was feeling good, and excited about the ride down the coast! I had a couple of big hills to face but it was mostly flat. The first hill to hit was just before the lookout over Mt Paku! a beautiful viewpoint and perfect place for a quick break- second breakfast!
The ride from Mt Paku was fairly easy, coasting down to Whangamata! Instead of keeping on the main road to continue to Waihi I was doing good on time, so decided to take a 2km detour towards the beach and stop for lunch!
Whangamata Beach…. was voted New Zealand’s best beach in 2018 with one of the world’s best surf breaks! The beach was beautiful, the weather was warm, but the beach wasn’t very busy. Even biking through the little beach town to get to it it was quiet. After a quick IGA stop to get cheese, meat and crackers for a feast of a lunch I found myself at a quiet ‘best beach’ winner in New Zealand.
Hello COVID 19…..
The world was about to go mad. I had no idea. When I got to NZ it had not hit Australia and it had not hit NZ. It was still in Wuhan, and just hit Italy. As I write this post months on from when I actually did the ride, it seems crazy to think what was about to happen! But for now in Whangamete, I was oblivious, and I was enjoying quiet roads, quiet towns, and quiet campgrounds!! So onwards and around the Bay of Islands I was headed!
Whilst at the beach I met a lovely older lady, who was taking a short cycle ride along the coast and who stopped and asked if she could join me whilst i’m sat there eating lunch and looking out over the beach and ocean. So I ended up having lunch with her, and she tells me she is just visiting for a couple of days to tidy her beach house up, and that I’m welcome to hang out there for a the night or as long as I want to. If I didn’t have a warmshowers place for the night (which ended up being the most amazing accommodation) I would have taken this lady up on her offer!
From Whangamete it was just a 1.5 hour ride to Waihi! The ride was shorter today, and it was nice to reach my destination for the night early, so I could hang around the town and relax. Upon arrival to Waihi I am greeted with a nice big rainbow…
After grabbing some food in town I headed to my warmshowers place. I had struck gold with this place! My own little cabin… in fact 2 cabins! 1 was the kitchen/living room and the other was the bedroom and bathroom!
The Warmshowers host’s here were Jonathon and Zoe. I was greeted by Zoe and their two little kids and later by Jonathon. He was full of information about bike trails around the area as well in NZ as a whole and had cool stories of bike touring. He offered that I could stay another night straight away, and said to just relax and make myself at home, and oh, I was happy to just chill for a bit. With no wifi either in the little hut, I was able to really unwind. Jonathon had offered up his mountain bike if I wanted to go explore the Karangahake Gorge! Which was on my checklist, but I had taken it off as I didn’t think I would have time. But now that I was spending an extra day here and that I had a mountain bike to take the easy trail to the gorge I was totally game for it and excited.
Little did I know that in a week there wasn’t going to be anymore of this chill bike touring….
“It takes courage to say yes to rest and play, in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol”