I hopped off the plane at Auckland with the usual feelings of
nervousness at entering a new country and expecting new challenges, but much
more excited than usual to return to a UKish environment for a little while.
Having been unable to properly communicate since France (despite the vast
improvements in my French/Arabic hybrid), I was really really excited to be
able to speak to people/read road signs/read menus again. I was also excited
for the more normal temperatures, and normal food. The entry into New Zealand
wasn’t the seemless transition we’d hoped, as we had to face biosecurity much
more rigorous than our entry to Chile (where mum managed to smuggle in a
grape). No grapes were getting past these sniffer dogs. After being filmed by
the NZ equivalent of “Border force”, we managed to escape with our bikes and
put them together at the Bike Assembly Area. We had the definite plan that we’d
cycle to parkrun, then the reality that we got a taxi to parkrun and missed the
start by 14 minutes. Undeterred we set off and I’d just managed to overtake the
last runners by the finish. On the way out I saw my university Tom on the way
back. We managed a high five and found eachother at the finish. Tom’s braving a
new life in Austrailia and had been cycle touring in NZ on the way. He was
joining us for the next leg. After parkrun we all had a coffee and met a lovely
family from England who had made the journey to Auckland. After this Mum, Tom
and I set off to Auckland town centre and then to Brown’s bay. We rode on an
awesome segregated cycle lane for almost all of this, and the scenery was
already stunning. We got to the Jordans’ house in the late afternoon and I felt
happier and more relaxed than I had done for months. Their house was
essentially everything I’d dreamt about in all the low moments. Tea! Beer!
Waffles! Trifle! A hot shower! A comfortable bed! We went to their neighbours
house for NYE celebrations and at midnight (6 AM Santiago time), I couldn’t
cope any longer and fell into bed. We woke up late and headed to the beach.
After a game of bowles, a bodyboard, and a tragic shell death - RIP Bobby.
(this is an inside joke nobody actually died) we had another lovely evening
with this fantastic family. I was really really sad to leave in the morning and
found it very hard packing up, but we managed to make it out the door and
headed out to begin our journey.
I had been under the impression that people moved to NZ for the weather,
but as I wiped the pouring rain off my glasses and put on my legwarmers I was
starting to doubt that. The sky was a solid grey and it was not warm. We rode
on some backroads which would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been for the
cloying mist, until we got to a campsite by a hot spring. This hot spring was
blissful, v hot and not at all smelly. Unfortunetly it started absolutely
pouring with rain and we went to bed. In the morning our tent was wet on the
inside. This was the first time this had happened and I thought it was quite a
worrying sign for the future.
The next day we started out with a ride to Raglan on the coast. The
weather was pretty rubbish again and the going was tough. At Raglan we found
out that things were going to get tougher as it was a 55km road to the next
town. We loaded up with supplies and set off. This road was badly maintainted
and very hilly, making slow progress. Eventually at 7:45 we arrived at a roadhouse which promised free
camping. We fell inside and had pies and beer, and obviously succeeded in
looking so bedraggled that the owner gave us a free cottage to sleep in, and in
the morning let us use their car to drive to the nearby hot water beach. We dug
a hole in the sand and the water was hot, but the biting wind and driving rain mean
my nose went numb. Getting out was agony as we sprinted up the beach into the
safety of the dunes. We waited for the weather to improve a bit and left, and
headed towards Waitomo caves. We met somebody on the way who told us there was
a natural bridge before it where you could see glow worms. As the clouds
lifted, the true majesty of NZ scenery was revealed and it was gorgeous.
We
ignored the no camping sign at the natural bridge and at night the glow worms
were spectacular. Thousands and thousands of them lined the rocky gorge and
nobody else was there. Tom said he would propose there and nobody could say no
(watch out ladiez). After this we had
another epic day riding to the start of the Timber Trail.
The Timber Trail is an 87km off road track which we'd been hearing about for a few weeks. This was both amazing and awful - the views were breathtaking and it's always lovely cycling with no cars. Our 40kg steel touring bikes aren't particularly well equipped for singletrack though and this made it hard riding. The first day we didn't have far to go and had a relaxed day with our two new friends Jan and Jonas. The timber trail is full of amazing bridges which swing across rivers. We met so many cyclists on this day, loads of families and loads of tourists. We all camped that evening in a free campsite at the midpoint of the trail. The family in the camper van next door took us under their wing and gave us water and helped us start our campfire. They then went out on their quad bike and shot a massive deer! I found it quite shocking. The second day on the timber trail was really hard, with a rocky surface and a few steep hills. This was definitely not designed for fully loaded steel touring bikes... We were struggling to the campsite at the other end when a car containing the campsite owner overtook us and offered to take our luggage to the campsite! Is this cheating? Probably but we were past caring. The campsite was full of more lovely people - a bit of a theme in New Zealand.
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