Stage 1 done: Bring on the rest of the country!

Stage one at a glance

• 575 km – slighlty less than anticipated due to the heat – we took a few short cuts.
• Climbing – quite a bit – 6,673m about average for our overall ride. The ride to the Cape was one if the toughest we will encounter on our ride around Aotearoa.
• Issues: Heat – we had to leave early to avoid the heat of the day. Provisions – we had limited food resupply options and choices in many of the locations.
• Highlights: The Hokianga, Ride to the Cape, Beaches of the east coast. Overall – an amazing part of the country.,

This ride around Te Tai Tokerau was our test run, if we could manage this then we would have shot at the rest of Aotearoa – roughly about 7,000km. What was the outcome? Well, the Rear Admiral was the surprise package on this ride. Due to her esteemed rank, she expressed concern about a host of potential problems: heat, distance, hills, gravel, camping, sun, lack of water, incompetent captain, bike breakdowns, dodgy cuisine, dogs, nuclear attack, rabid motorists. I am pleased to report that we were able to deal with most of these (the jury is out on nuclear attack). There was the odd hiccup but overall, the outcomes were better than expected.

First up, the Rear Admiral proved to be the best prepared. Despite her lack of hours on the bike, her regular gym attendance was a proven advantage. On the hills her legs were powering along without a problem whereas I was feeling the odd niggle. Ruth obsessed over he height of each hill but I was able to reassure her from my previous experience that the best way to tackle hills was, just ride over them. Forget about where the top is! I learnt about that on my ride through the north as a prelude to my Tour Aotearoa ride 21/22

Anyhow, since our last post we have, until today, had a pretty cruisy few days riding. From Houhora the terrain wasmostly flat and through a very intensive Avocado growing region and then onto our first decent cafe since Rawene on day 2. This was to be one of two days where we experienced a shower of rain and one loomed just as we biked into Awanui. We found the Big River Cafe on SH10 and it was like heaven, Ruth ordered a doughnut, Ruth never eats doughnuts, and I had endless cups of flat white. It is amazing what a few days from the comforts of life does to us!

We were not looking forward to the section of SH10 from Awanui to the Karikari Peninsula turnoff. It was Friday and we were expecting a lot of trucks along what is currently the de facto SH1. We were pleasantly surprised but still happy to hit the turnoff about 13km later.

Whatawhiwhi on the Karikari Peninsula was a gem. Loverly beach and nice accommodation, we wished that we had made this our R&R desitination but that was still another two rides away.

From Whatawhiwhi it was through to Hihi beach via Mangonui. Another great little spot that we had not visited before and, another pretty short ride (50km). These two rides had the Rear Admiral in fine spirits, why stop at Aotearoa, lets do Aussie as well!

Our meander down the east coast beaches continued on Sunday. I had planned to take an inland detour but given that it was Sunday we decided to push down SH 10 as there was unlikely to be the usual compliment of logging and other commercial trucks. The decision proved to be the correct one and we were soon at our old stomping ground of Whangaroa. From there we cycled thorough to Tauranga Bay. The road was deserted but as we were cruising down a hill an oncoming vehicle slowed and the driver yelled out the window, it was my nephew Korey and partner, Nat. We stopped and they turned around and we had a totally unexpected chat that resulted in a very generous donation. We hope to catch up with them as guest riders later in the year. Thanks guys!

A few pics from our rest day at Tauranga Bay

The thing with the Whangaroa area is that you are in volcanic hill country, hills that tend to be around 2-300m high and after a rest day we found ourselves grinding our way up those hills on our final leg back to Kerikeri. The Rear Admiral was onto the challenge and at the team meeting on Monday, she advised that it would be a dawn raid on the hills. Hit em while it is still chilly!

That we did and at 7:30am were were cruising through the early morning mist onto our first 240m climb. By 9:30am we had knocked off around 800m of climbing with barely a bead of sweat to be seen (well not by motorists zipping by at 100kph). Such was the military precision of this last ride, we were sitting at home having lunch by midday. My only concern with the RA’s plan for ride number 10 was her decision to take us along a 7km section of shoulderless SH10 instead of taking the longer quieter inland (but gravel) route. Her argument was the forecast heat – my counter was the suicidal nature of those 7km.

In the end it was a draw. The road was indeed suicidal and gave us our second ‘pants soiling’ experience with a logging truck and a slightly less terrifying encounter with a watermelon ute. But we got back to Kerikeri before the heat – a win win I guess.

What was the overall summation of this test run?

• We did garner a lot of valuable information for our intended longer ride. Too many lessons to list here.
• It went better than either of us anticipated. The RA is still in the game but I am on several warnings with regard to the rest of the itinerary.
• The bike is great and by day 10 we had tweaked our luggage setup to what we suspect will be used for the big ride.
• Our charity efforts need quite a bit of fine tuning but we are really encouraged by the response so far. We are already averaging $1.39 per km which provides a lot of motivation on the hills.
• Generally, motorists have been great. We get many supportive waves and toots (not something I got when riding on a half bike). We had only one abusive pratt and two near misses with logging trucks. It was neither of our faults but it was a lesson for us – if your are on blind corners at the base of a hill, get off and walk you bike because those big trucks are steaming along to get up the hill – if there is no shoulder and oncoming traffic you know who the loser is going to be.

Well, that it it from us for a few weeks. We are going to sit down and digest our experience and then start to fine tune our itinerary for the next 7,000 or so km.

I cannot finish without a mention of Bob (bear on bike). He was fearless on the back of the bike, staring down those logging trucks, sliding in the gravel on Sandhills Road, soaking up the biddy bids during our many roadstop stops. Such a laugh, photo bombing continuously and, well, that terrifying encounter with the one legged seagull at Tauranga Bay was really traumatic for the little blighter. Well done Bob our Angel Bear. I am not sure that you are going to last the next 7,000km but you are a battler

If you feel inspired by our travels, don’t forget to support the charity we are riding for – Bald Angels. Having briefly experienced the challenges of the Far North we can see what a struggle it is for so many, especially the young. We found ourselves out of our comfort zone for much of this ride but have been able to return to our comfortable home at the end of it. For too many, they don’t have that option.

I am sure the logging truck driver that gave us the ‘move or die’ blast of the horn today could not give a toss about low emissions travel. However, if you want to find out more about treading with a lighter carbon footprint visit the Carbon Neutral NZ Trust calculator – you may be shocked or surprised.