515 Km / 320 Miles
I left Ryan and Bex’s house early (however, not as early as they had both left for work!) I was on the road around 8am, with my first stop being Mt Maunganui – I haven’t done as much hiking as I thought I would have done by now, so I was excited to get up a “mountain”. It was a 2 hour ride to the mountain, I rode flat out there as I knew I had a 100km today, and after the mountain I was gonna be a little slower on the bike so I wanted to make up some good time and distance this morning.
Riding into Mount Maunganui was not what I expected, It was a very touristy town. It was the busiest I had seen a place since Auckland (although I imagine its 10x this busy normally without Covid!) It was also the biggest town I had seen in a while, so I stocked up with some food goodies and headed to find somewhere to store my bike. There was a holiday park at the bottom of the mountain where they let me leave my bike and belongings securely around the back of the main office.
The hike up Mount Maunganui only took 35 minutes up and 20 minutes with a jog down! The total distance was 3.8 km, and I took a loop walk up and down, going up on the east side and down around the north and west. The views the whole way up were over the water and very open and wide. It was a beautiful day and I was happy to be high up and hiking 🙂
Once back at sea level, I decided to go soak in the hot pools at the holiday park! These were surprisingly quiet, despite the town and mountain being pretty busy. i spent maybe a little longer than I anticipated in here, but I was relaxed, I was feeling pretty content. I contemplated staying here the night at the holiday park, until I was told for me and my bike and my tent it would be $40 for the night… no thank you, I will peddle on for another 3.5 hours (70km) to the DOC camp that was $7 for the night that I had originally planned.
Well I tried to leave the town, but got sidetracked by the commotion down at the beach, where there was a beach volleyball tournament going on. It had attracted loads of people (maybe why the hot pools were so quiet). I stopped and watched for a bit, and caught up with friends on the phone. A couple of elderly ladies having lunch on a park bench near me started a conversation with me, intrigued about me and my bike and where I was going: where I had been! They were insistent that I give them my phone for them to take a photo of me, as “I’m sure you don’t have any actual photos of you on your bike, I’m sure you’d mum would like to see a photo of you” So here… I am.
I had 3.5 hours left of riding this afternoon, but fairly flat going to get to the DOC camp ground I was planning to stay at! After stocking up on some food I continued along the coast heading to Matata! From some local knowledge (Thanks Ryan!) I was able to find the access path to the cycle route towards Paengaroa – not being able to access the toll road, it really wasn’t obvious how to get to the cycle path – and google was definitely no help! I knew I was looking for Bell rd which would lead me under the tollway onto a side road and then to the path – surprisingly very little signage! Biking these side roads that were VERY empty made me question the route I was taking but I was trusting in the knowledge I was told – and thankful to come out where I needed – although wishing the coastal path had just continued and saved this huge detour. I was greeted with a rainbow as I cycled alongside the tollway though – a mixture of a good and bad sign – I love seeing rainbows and they’ve mostly appeared when I’ve needed them on my ride, but it also meant the potential for rain (thankful for just a little refreshing drizzle)
As I head slowly back to the coast, I’m pretty ready to get to the campground. I pass one campground which is more of a rest stop, but for the basic facilities it offered I wasn’t willing to part with $25, so I opted to bike the further 8km to the DOC campground that I had planned for. Happy to knock out a few more kilometres so I had a little bit of a head start for tomorrow. WELL…. 3km later…. POP. There goes my first puncture of the trip! The sun had just gone down over the ocean and I knew I was racing for daylight to get this tyre fixed and get to the campground. I changed the tyre on the side of the road at the end of someone’s driveway, annoyingly it was the back tyre (always the back tyre) – the most hassle as it means getting all the bags off and then the chain. 20 Minutes later its all done and good to go, and 5km left of riding!
I roll into Matata just before 7pm, and see a small little convenience store just closing up! I shoot in to grab some sugary snacks, and something for breakfast tomorrow before heading the last few metres down to the campsite. That rainbow earlier… must have been a bad sign… the weather was changing! I managed to get some dinner down me and then set up my tent before the wind started to pick up and the rain started! The ($7 a night) campground was fairly quiet, and was also very basic. There was a toilet and a paying shower, which I just couldn’t be bothered with. After eating and setting my tent up, all I wanted to do was sleep! I’d been at the Hot Springs earlier so that was my shower for the day 🙂
The weather was getting worse. As I was ready to sleep I decided my tent needed to be pegged down properly, and I needed to get the lines out to give me as much chance as possible of staying dry! So I throw my rain gear on to peg around the tent and then retreat back into the tent with my belongings in the middle of the tent with me and my bike in the trees/bushes trying to shelter from the storm that was coming. Time to see out the storm, and see how the tent holds up!!
“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass”