Bay of Plenty and rail trails

One of the drivers for choosing places of interest when travelling by bike is the distance or terrain you have to encounter. New Zealand's north island is approximately 1000km from top to bottom with plenty of significant slopes to ascend and descend. I'm glad I took local advice and headed out of Auckland straight for the Coromandel Peninsula.

 

It's a great introduction to the flora, fauna and towns with a strong history of expats from the UK. They do like their sheep and dairy here and European travellers tell me that NZ lamb is highly sought after in Europe, especially France.

 

Bay of Plenty

A 'sticky' situation

The Bay of Plenty was next on my list so I headed down the east cost to the Hot Water Beach. By the way, the weather has been superb for cycling. This will be my first paid camping night as I prefer to camp in a quiet forest and can easily manage without hot running water or a shave for a few days, provided there are good water sources along the way. Along some roads clean water has been flowing down spring fed holes in the hillside and it's nice and cold for the morning wash.

The Hot Water Beach is named for its hot water pools sourced from Earth's hot crust rising to the surface just off shore in this spot. You can hire a spade or take your own (though not likely to have one) and dig a hole in the hot spot and enjoy the warm sea 'spa'. It can reach temp of 65 degrees Celsius so be careful or you'll get more than a warm backside.

 

 

 

Thankfully there is some relief from the horrendous constant traffic on the north island as you can use rail trails for some of it. I think there are as many cars on the road here as there are sheep but sheep do not overtake on double lines on blind crests or bends and in some cases nearly collecting oncoming traffic. The drivers appear to have complete disdain for cyclists as if they were an unrecognizable foreign object. Local cyclists agree with me and shake their heads in dismay.

 

Cycling the rail trail at Karangahake Gorge

Maggie and Daniele

Anyway this provided me with great relief and finally able to relax and enjoy the sublime scenery and listen to peaceful classical music on the IPod. I met up with fellow cyclists Daniele and Maggie from Germany who joined me for some flat km's before we parked for the night at the next town.

Tonight's music - Bach Brandenberg Concertos

 

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