An overview of the road covered during our tenth week of cycling.

2018.01.02 – [NZ] Whanganui ==> Matahiwi (55 kms | Total: 2652 kms) – Jenny and I were both eager to leave the hectic holiday park this morning. We had expected to be cycling under the rain this morning but the clouds were still holding out. We had to back track our route into town for 6 kms in order to cross a bridge to the other side of the Whanganui river. We ended up crossing the river over a walkway beside a railroad bridge saving us 2 kms but we had to unload twice our panniers and trailer in order to get around the walkway gates. We had planned to have breakfast at a café, some 7 kms up river, but once we arrived there we realized that it would open only the next day. Further on, we turned off from the highway onto the Whanganui River road. We learned in the previous days, thanks to Google Street View, that this narrow secondary road was sealed/asphalted all the way to Pipiriki and then to Raetihi.  We would be following this remote road (i.e. no cell coverage) for the next two days.  We undertook a long and steep climb (i.e. walk) early into this secondary road. We arrived at the Matahiwi Café and Gallery around 2:00pm – one hour before they closed. Although the Café was not officially opened that day, the friendly lady owner prepared us a light lunch meal and some lattes.  Shortly after 3pm, it started to rain heavily with some lightning and thunder for the next few hours. Until we heard the owner return to the cabin area with a backpacker guest, we had been the only occupants of the grounds. Jenny was relieved to know that someone else was on the site after hours. We met Carol, a backpacker from Taiwan, in the small kitchen area. She had managed to hitch-hike a ride during the rain and locate the Café owner. We had some enjoyable chat throughout our evening meal preparation and eating.  We were really amazed by Carol’s previous hikes across different part of the world.  It was a very inspiring encounter.  Jenny really enjoyed the comfortable cabin with some great views offered by the low clouds floating along the mountains and valley.

2018.01.03 – [NZ] Matahiwi ==> Raetihi (51 kms | Total: 2703 kms) – Again this morning, we were expecting to be cycling in the rain early on but the clouds were still holding off. We had our breakfast at the Café before leaving as we expected a fairly difficult second half of the day’s journey with very limited facilities along the way. As Carol had mentioned to us yesterday, the heavy rain had brought down some rocks onto the road in various locations. We were simply glad that we were not cycling in the rain. We stopped in Jesuralem to have a look at the St-Joseph’s convent that provided accommodation to travelers. We continued our route north along the Whanganui River road up to Pipiriki. We refilled some our water bottles at a holiday park before turning east and climbing towards Raetihi. It had been quite surprising to have met so many touring cyclists on this road – probably the road that we encountered the most up-to-date. We cycled slowly under the warm and humid weather. We encountered some intermittent light rain along our route to Raetihi. We were fairly tired by the time we arrived in town. We bought a few snacks before making our way to our backpacker accommodation, one km away from the town center. We had some very basic takeaway for our evening meal as the town had no sit down restaurant offering. We were again pleased that the weather forecast calling for rain had not materialized.

2018.01.04 – [NZ] Raetihi ==> National Park (36 kms | Total: 2739 kms) – Again we had expected to begin our cycling day under the rain, the road was still dry. We had breakfast at a local café before taking the road towards the National Park Village some 30kms further. Although the journey was short, the road climbed gently over 300m bringing us to over 825m above sea level at the Village – probably the highest overnight rest area we had been during our trip so far. As we arrived at the backpacker accommodation, it started to rain heavily. We learned that Auckland had been hit by this heavy rain and wind in the past few days. We kept on monitoring, even more frequently, the weather forecast which was now calling for 76mm of rain in the next day with accompanied heavy winds. The backpacker accommodation hosted an amazing indoor rock climbing hall. We walked under some heavy rain and wind to the nearby popular bar/restaurant for a great evening meal of ribs.

2018.01.05 – [NZ] National Park ==> Turangi (0 kms | Total: 2739 kms) – It seemed the rain and wind did not stop at all during the night. We ventured out on foot, under the same weather conditions, for breakfast at a nearby café. Given the wind gust of over 40kms, we agreed that it was not safe to venture out cycling on the road. We inquired on transport options to get to Turangi as we had already booked our evening accommodation there. After trying our luck for one hour at catching a ride at a gas station, we resigned ourselves to pay $80 to our backpacker accommodation for a ride to Turangi some 50kms further – even though we had looked forward to going downhill towards this town. The backpacker owner agreed to give us a ride in her Honda mini van.  We easily managed to load all of our equipment on board and stored one part of the tandem inside the mini van and the other part was fitted on a bicycle rack. We arrived in Turangi under heavy rain, but much less windy conditions. The holiday park was marketed as a rustic campground – but we were not sure whether it included the ants crawling around in the cabins. We ventured out for our evening meal at a local popular tavern after the rain had tampered down after 6pm.

2018.01.06 – [NZ] Turangi ==> Taupo (55 kms | Total: 2794 kms) – We expected somewhat dryer condition today to resume our cycling journey but the cloud appeared quite menacing. After some yogurt and oranges, we cycled out of the small town of Turangi along highway 1. We stopped for breakfast at a nice café, some 10kms further. We laughed a bit when we first came across an area of the highway which had water coming across the road. We were not laughing so much after crossing a few of these areas which had at least 6 inches of water crossing the road. Jenny kept her feet off the pedals – well above ground while I had the pleasure of cycling through the cross road streams. The road shoulder was surprisingly narrow at times given its status as a major highway. This was especially true during a fairly long and steep climb – which we walked – under a non-existent road shoulder and heavy vehicle traffic We enjoyed our gradual downhill toward Taupo. Jenny was thrilled to be back into a big city. As we arrived in the city center before 1:00pm, we dropped by McDonald’s for a latte and ice cream. We later checked into a very nice holiday park (compared to the previous evening). We walked into the city center for our evening meal at a Thai restaurant.

2018.01.07 – [NZ] Taupo ==> Rotorua (80 kms | Total: 2875 kms) – Although the weather forecast was calling for a low probability of light rain, we started riding under the rain shortly after leaving Taupo and this lasted for pretty much the duration of our 80km ride to Rotorua. Jenny wore her poncho for most of the ride while I preferred to be showered by the rain. Thankfully, we cycled for the first 50km on a secondary road with little traffic. We managed the remainder of our journey on the highway with a reasonable road shoulder – most of the way. We appreciated the last 15kms following a gentle downward incline into Rotorua. We checked at 3:00pm into a motel near the city center for the next three nights. By then, the rain had finally stopped and the sun even started to shine. After a warm shower, we walked to the nearby supermarket for some snacks. Unfortunately, our motel room was not equipped  with a full cooking kitchenette. Hence, we would not be cooking any meals in our room. We stopped at one of several Chinese restaurants in the city center for our evening meal.

2018.01.08 – [NZ] Rotorua ==> Rotorua (0 kms | Total: 2875 kms) – After our continental breakfast courtesy of our motel, we walked to the nearby Kuirau Park which offered a great and free overview of the geothermal activity and pools for which the resort town of Rotorua is famously known for. We stopped for a lunch break at a café before making our way to visit the Governments Gardens. The Rotorua Museum, housed on the Garden’s grounds, was unfortunately closed in late 2016.  It was determined the building fell well below earthquake safety standards and it would need to be remain closed for the foreseeable future.  We stopped for some afternoon snacks at McCafé before returning to our motel accommodation. We had some takeaway pizza and Chinese food for our evening meal. It was a very enjoyable (and sunny) day to be walking around town.

2018.01.09 – [NZ] Rotorua ==> Rotorua (0 kms | Total: 2875 kms) – After our breakfast at the motel, we did our usual expense tracking, trip planning for our last cycling segment in NZ, tandem maintenance.  As well, we wrapped up our reservations (i.e. flight, hotel, catamaran, etc) for our upcoming Fiji trip.  In the late morning, we took the city bus to the Redwoods – Whakarewarewa Forest .  As noted by the Forest website: “The forest is most well known for the network of superb mountain biking and walking tracks and for the magnificent stand of Californian Coast Redwoods”.  We treated ourselves to the Redwoods Treewalk, a recreational walk featuring 23 suspension bridges through 115-year-old Redwood trees.  Later, we tried to undertake a 2-hour hike but we gave up after loosing sight of the trail!  We took the city bus back into the city center.  We had some  great and plentiful Korean BBQ for our evening meal.

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.
— Mark Twain