An overview of the road covered during our eleventh week of cycling and our arrival into Auckland, our final destination in New Zealand (3,200 kms).
2018.01.10 – [NZ] Rotorua ==> Putaruru (56 kms | Total: 2930 kms) – After our motel’s courtesy breakfast, we headed back on the road under a partial sunny sky. We slowly left behind us the smell of sulfur from the town’s geothermal pools. The road offered a gradual climb for the first 20kms. I noticed yesterday during our regular tandem maintenance that my Brooks saddle appeared to have a broken tension screw. Along the way, I had to use some electrician tape on the saddle to secure the remainder of the tension screw. After a rest at a roadside café, we enjoyed a long and slow descent for much of the rest of our day’s journey. Our expectations for our hotel accommodation in Putaruru were not high but we were surprised by the clean and unique spirit of this 1950 building. We learned from the hotel history, that during construction, the room #10 had been specially designed with the hope that the Queen could be staying at the hotel during her first visit to NZ. The story went that Queen never even stopped in this town during her visit. Nonetheless, we were thrilled to be stayed in room #11 – just beside the Queen’s room. We had our evening meal at a popular restaurant at the other end of town.
2018.01.11 – [NZ] Putaruru ==> Cambridge (45 kms | Total: 2975 kms) – As we planned a relatively short cycling day at 40kms, we opted to stop for breakfast in Pirau, some 11 kms from Putaruru. Although we were a bit concerned about cycling once again on highway 1 because of our past experience with its sometime narrow shoulder. This was not a problem for this segment. Nonetheless, the constant speeding traffic did not make our day overly relaxing. Given our early arrival in Cambridge, we took the opportunity to stop for some snacks at McDonald’s. We checked into our nice Top 10 holiday park, which only joined the Top 10 brand a month ago. After showering, we walked to a nearby grocery store for supplies for our evening meal. In the evening, we walked 30 mins back into the town center with the hope to catch some of the vibrant street activity that we saw when we cycled by earlier in the day. Unfortunately, all the cafés and stores were closed. While working late on the laptop outside our cabin with the door open, we struggled with mosquitoes inside for a few hours.
2018.01.12 – [NZ] Cambridge ==> Te Aroha (65 kms | Total: 3040 kms) – We had breakfast once again at McDonald’s before leaving Cambridge as we were not expecting any further facilities for the remainder of our 65kms ride. We were eager to undertake today’s ride on secondary roads. The uniqueness of today’s ride was that it took us through a dozen secondary roads – all sealed/paved roads – except for one km. This type of sealed secondary road journey would not have been possible on the south island. The cycling day was very enjoyable but rather warm in the later part of the day. Unfortunately, we did not take any photos throughout the day. After checking into our holiday park, we cycled 3 kms into town for some grocery supplies for our evening meal.
2018.01.13 – [NZ] Te Aroha ==> Miranda (65 kms | Total: 3105 kms) – We stopped in town for breakfast. Our route started on the highway but we shortly moved onto quiet and straight secondary roads alongside irrigation canals. We enjoyed cycling under the cloudy sky on flat roads. We stopped at a café in Ngatea for lattees and ice cream. We checked into our nice holiday park with an on-site hot mineral pool. We had our evening meal at the small café beside our holiday park – the only place in the area serving food.
2018.01.14 – [NZ] Miranda ==> Orere Point (35 kms | Total: 3140 kms) – We left the holiday park under a very bright sun. We had planned to stop for breakfast at the next village, Kaiaua, some 12kms further. The road finally met up with the bay which allowed us to cycle alongside the water. At the store/café in Kaiaua, we learned that the ocean/bay water had come across the road during some heavy winds last week and flooded the store with 1.5m of water. This was the same storm that stopped us from cycling between National Park village and Turangi. Although, our cycling day was fairly short, the sun made it a bit harder. Upon arriving in Orere Point, we stopped at the local store for some snacks. We checked into our last Top 10 holiday park in NZ. After swapping our initial cabin, we settled in and showered. We returned to the nearby store for supplies for our evening meal. In the evening, we walked to the nearby beach area.
2018.01.15 – [NZ] Orere Point ==> Auckland (60 kms | Total: 3200 kms) – We cycled some 28kms before stopping for some lattees and sandwiches for breakfast. As we kept on cycling in rural area, we had a hard time believing that we would soon be entering the Auckland area. Well, the chaotic urban traffic suddenly appeared almost instantly as we turned onto a road. Thanks to our phone gps (Maps.me), it guided us, over the next 15kms, to our hotel near the airport. We arrived at our destination ten days before our 3-month NZ tourist visa expired. After checking in and showering, we walked to a grocery store for snacks and drinks for the next few days. We had our evening meal at the hotel’s restaurant. In the evening, we took the hotel’s airport shuttle to the airport in order to purchase a bicycle box. We managed to secure a box from Air New Zealand for $25 -which saved us the hassle of visiting one or many bicycle shops in order to secure a bicycle box. We got initiated to the bus system as we took the bus from airport back to our hotel.
2018.01.16 – [NZ] Auckland ==> Auckland (0 kms | Total: 3200 kms) – We had a light breakfast in our hotel room. After reviewing our public transportation options, we opted to buy the $10 AT Hop cards which offered a good saving on the regular cash fare. We took the bus towards the city center where we visited a swim wear store. Jenny and I both purchased new swim suits for our Fiji trip. Later, we bused to an area with several Chinese restaurants for our lunch. We visited a large shopping mall and made a few clothes and snack purchases. The bus commuting from/to the hotel took about 1.5hr each direction. In the evening, we dismantled the tandem and trailer for our flight to Sydney on Feb. 3rd.
2018.01.17 – [NZ] Auckland ==> Auckland (0 kms | Total: 3200 kms) – We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel this morning. We spent most of the morning packing the tandem and trailer. In the mid-afternoon, we dropped off our luggage and bicycle box at the reception for storage until our return from Fiji on Jan. 31st. We took public transportation (bus and train) to the city center. After walking for an hour or so, we had our evening meal at a restaurant fronting the harbor. It has been quite windy since our arrival in Auckland.
