Day 3… Coromandel Forest Park
Day 3… This morning I woke up with a terrible migraine, and knew I wasn’t going anywhere! After the hike yesterday I was still pretty exhausted and not feeling like i could get anywhere today, let alone on a bike!
I stayed another night at the campground, and just hung out by the water and napping in my tent all day. It felt like the first day in a long while where I really did nothing. I was in the mountains, surrounded by nature, water and minimal people.
This bike ride was already feeling different to the other two. I was not on a schedule. Having my tent with me created such a different mind set. After day 1 and seeing several campsite or possible campsites along the way I knew I was able to just bike as much as I wanted or I could, in a day and could easily find somewhere to put my tent up for the night. As long as I had some snacks and “real” food, and some water or a stream nearby I was gonna survive the night.
I was lucky to have some cell service at this campground and a charged laptop, so it meant I could plan the next few days. I already moved my warmshowers place to to tomorrow night. I was going to stay here all day and let my body catch up! I really couldn’t have asked for a better, more peaceful spot! I was falling in love with the beauty of New Zealand!
Day 4 – Biking to Cathedral Cove!
259 Km / 160 Miles
I woke up feeling so much more refreshed and energised today. I definitely needed that day of doing nothing. Slowing down and resting is something I’m not very good at, but I’m gradually learning to trust and listen to my body 🙂
I packed up my tent and hit the road pretty early, I knew I had a long day on the bike and I wanted to visit both Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. I stopped in the town of Thames, and stocked up on snacks and got coffee and junk food for breakfast. I was full of carbs and sugar and ready to hit the East Coast of the Coromandel to get to Tapu. A few hours of riding fairly flat roads along the coast I got to Tapu, and made the decision (which later I would regret) to cut through the park on the Tapu-Coroglen road instead of biking around the coast more.
Now… admittedly there were plenty of signs warning of an unsealed road, and whist trying to map it yesterday I wasn’t sure how “unsealed” it would be, I cycled down this road hoping by unsealed it was still perfectly ride-able. the first 8km were nice and flat and smooth, and for some reason I thought “maybe gogole maps just wasn’t updated for this road, and the big ass road signs/warnings just were just old, and that the roads weren’t that bad”. Yeah, I was wrong. I’d made the wrong decision, but after 4.5km I was too stubborn to turn back and thought this, now, dirt road and VERY VERY loose gravel was not going to last the next 21km. Well…. it did. And it got worse. The next 5.5km was uphill, and not a little bit of uphill, 350m of constant climbing on a road that was not suitable for my wheels. There was a lot of cursing to myself and at myself.
Just before hitting the top of the climb, there was a short relief in a “tourist” stop. Defiantly not worth the bike/drive on this horrible road to see. For anyone thinking it might be worth it, unless you really like square trees… Seeing this square Karri tree was not worth the effort of getting there. (yes, campers and vans were trying to get up this road and struggling! – people must have really thought I was stupid) But… I was there, so I was going to enjoy a square tree, and hike up a some steps to get a close up, and pretend the only reason I was stupid enough to bike this road was because I was square tree enthusiast… haaa.
Back on the bike, and the downhill… Now most other down hills are pleasant, and fun, and cruise-y. This one was not. Now I’ve had a couple of “dangerous” downhills and not fun ones, but this one was hard. Biking on lose gravel and being on a gradual downhill for almost 10km was really hard, and was absolutely physically and mentally draining. I have never had to concentrate so much, or grip my handlebars so tightly. After 20km I knew I was getting closer to Coroglen – I was checking my offline map constantly, wanting to get off this bloody road. Towards the end the road would smoothen out around the last corners, but then back to gravel, and didn’t go back to being solidly smooth until I hit the intersection between this road and the main coastal road going through Coroglen (the one I horribly regret not taking) This 2 hour shortcut (GOOGLE YOU WERE SO WRONG) had actually taken 4.5 hours! I wasn’t in Coroglen until 3.30pm. From here it was a nice smooth 30 minute ride to Sea Breeze campground! I was so happy to be here. Despite the $20 charge for the campground (which for a solo cyclist, seems a little expensive) I was glad to unload the bike, charge my electronics and get some food in me before I headed out to the two big tourist spots here. Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. They were each about a 30 minute ride away. I was pretty exhausted but I knew I was a day behind what I wanted to be, so going to these spots tonight would mean an earlier start on the road tomorrow and I’d be able to take it easy on the bike after a hard day today – I knew my legs were gonna hurt tomorrow!
A 30 minute ride to Hahei saw me at the start of the Cathedral Cove trail – I had biked as far up the road as I could to the closest trail head. I don’t remember there being this big of a walk last time, but it was a 1.5 hour return trip down to the cove. It was a beautiful walk, but I was getting super tired! The downhill to the beach hurt my knees and ankles but the view from the bottom was totally worth it. The tide was high so you couldn’t go the whole way through the cave but it was still pretty awesome down there and luckily, being the end of the day but before the sunset I think the timing was perfect to not get a huge crowd! As much as a sunset here would be beautiful, I wanted to catch it at the Hot Water Beach, which was closer to my accommodation for the night. I didn’t want a long ride home in the dark tonight!
Here’s some Cathedral Cove photos…
The walk uphill back to where I parked the bike seemed to take forever. But back on the bike I backtracked towards the campground and turned off at the 5km mark, and headed 2km east to Hot Water Beach. The first km was a nice easy flat and then it was just down – I was not excited… I was going to have to come back up this darling of a hill!!
At Hot Water Beach, the sun was coming down. The ocean was looking and sounding rather peaceful, and it was the perfect end to a hard day. I was feeling exhausted, but grateful. I walked up the beach a little to where the holes have beeb dug all day (perfect timing really, as the holes have been worked on all day). Basically groups of people dig holes in the sand throughout the day – usually taking over from other groups efforts… and then making a trail towards the ocean for the water to flow in. The hot sand underneath warms the water, creating the “Hot Water Beach”. The ocean itself…. is freezing!! It was nice to enjoy the hard work of everyone from the day!! I dipped my feet in for a while, and then headed back on the short walk to the bike, and then the short ride home.
Back at the camp ground, theres a big bus of tourists who have just turned up… well shit… there is some irony. As annoying and loud as they were I couldn’t be mad. That was me… 8 years ago. I was one of them. Oh how far I’ve come (finally) Hello Kiwi Experience Bus! I’ll leave you to it in the main lodge/communal area and retreat to my tent (That luckily I have put up quite far away from the building!) Im off to bed after a horribly long day. Ready for another rest day!!!!
“To Move, to Breathe, to Fly, to Float. To Gain all while you Give. To Roam the roads of lands remote. To Travel is to Live.”
Hans Christian Andersen