geeteetravels

Okay, another place I haven’t been to in 45 years, and a first time for Tara. I know I stayed somewhere close to where we are now which is Korotogo on the Coral Coast near to Sigatoka, but I couldn’t tell you exactly. Some things have definitely changed in the time since like cell phones with pretty good coverage which everybody seems to have, the local buses which have no windows and are a bit rough (same) now accept a tap-to-pay card for the fare, although it was apparently just recently introduced to stop drivers taking home too much of the cash fares for themselves. The small towns we passed through on the hour long taxi ride from Nadi to our small ’boutique’ resort looked a lot like some places in Africa to Tara, and have not changed to my observation over time. The weather is the same, 30C and 90% humidity pretty much day and night, with blazing sun straight overhead punctuated with massive afternoon showers, and then more sunshine. We have a 300m wide lagoon with crystal clear water and coral reef right in front of us with waves crashing onto the reef edge beyond that. At low tide you would have no trouble stepping around the rocks and coral to walk out to the reef’s edge, while at high tide we skitter out in kayaks a meter above the rocks and see what fish we can see by jumping off with a mask and snorkel into the bathtub temperature water. Yea, it’s a bit of paradise in the south pacific.

Along this small road are a few small resorts and one bigger one. Most appear to be low on guests as it is the low season for Aussie and Kiwi folks in their late summer. Yet we have a nice variety of open restaurants within walking distance along this quiet road they call sunset strip (because you can see the …). As you walk along, every single Fijian you meet says ‘Bula’ in friendly greeting, and you say Bula back. At dusk the megabats(!) start flying around, pacific flying foxes, which are large, hawk sized, and swoop from high up to roost in the trees close by. Remarkable and kind of freaky looking considering our bats are tiny.

Mainly we just relaxed, kayaked, and swam in the pool but we did go on one ‘excursion’ out to the small island of Likuri for a day. This included bus pickup from our resort, a boat ride down a river and then out to our tropical island getaway just a km or so offshore. While there we had a musical Fijian welcome and the Kava drinking ceremony with the chiefs to start. Yes, my lips got numb, I remember that from 45 years ago. Other activities included a Lovo (cooking underground with hot rocks) lunch, traditional dancing, basket weaving lesson, and a nature walk identifying trees and plants in the traditional Fijian pharmacopeia. Strangely there was a group of young Danes, maybe a dozen, staying on the island in the dorm accommodation. Party time for them no doubt, a long way from home.

We also went into Sigatoka town for essential supplies one day which was a unique Fijian experience. We got a lift in with the man who looks after the pool here in another example of Fijian friendliness. Sigatoka is a crowded chaotic town (that African vibe) but we managed to get fresh produce from the local open market with many people selling the same items (papayas, bananas, miniature pineapples, avocados, okra and a root vegetable) and a few other items from the grocery store which was difficult as the available food wasn’t familiar to us. We didn’t see anything worth lingering around town for so found the bus stop and waited along with many other locals and tried to determine which crowded bus to get on. During our wait we were offered taxi rides by some drivers in the long line of cabs looking for business, I guess we didn’t blend in, but we decided to complete our experience with a local ride on an open air bus. There are few bus stops, people just signal when they want to get on/off and the driver stops, often every 100-200 meters, client centred for sure. We had made the decision within the first few hours of arriving not to ride our bike in Fiji. The roads are just too chaotic and busy with traffic of all kinds going too fast, people walking and hitchhiking, livestock grazing roadside and importantly, no other bikes.

When it was time to leave Fiji we left bright and early in our prearranged taxi with the same driver that picked us up. I appreciated that his car seemed to be mechanically sound and did have seat belts, not all of them were in as good shape. The drive was a little more hectic than when we arrived as we did hit the morning rush hour. Our driver was doing a lot of passing and driving too fast alongside the livestock and people by the road. I decided to not look forward anymore, just out the side at the interesting things we passed by, as it was too unnerving. I was seriously worried we might die on a Fijian highway… Thankfully we made it safely to the airport and boarded our plane bound for Honolulu with a brief fueling stop in Samoa, then crossing back over the dateline and having two Friday March 13ths.

The last hour or so of the flight and the landing at Honolulu was quite rough due to a major storm in the Hawaiian Islands. We both felt that the threshold for turning on the ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign on Fiji Airways was much higher than we were used to. Travel is always an eye opener and makes you appreciate where you live. We arrived in the evening and then spent the night and the next day in Honolulu waiting for our flight to Calgary. The storm endured through the night and into the next day with high winds and lots of rain, we seem to be experiencing a lot of this, and it knocked out the power for much of the following day and everything was closed. Thus our plan to enjoy Honolulu for a day was dashed. We read our books in the hotel lobby for awhile then headed back to the airport to wait for our 10:30pm flight (left at midnight) which luckily wasn’t affected too much by the storm and we had a fairly smooth flight home with a tailwind. We arrived home to a wintery day but still always appreciate coming home again.

Tags: bikepacking, NZcycling, tandemcycling

One of the things I found in researching the best places to ride in New Zealand is that there exists a recognized bike route running from the northern most point to the southern most point in the country, the Tour Aotearoa, or TA (Maori name for New Zealand). That is, from Cape Reinga to Bluff, a distance of ~3000kms. As I put our route together coming down the west coast I realized we could and in some cases would be (limited road choice) on the same route. That was helpful for knowing that where we wanted to go was ride-able, at least by some cyclists. But more interesting is that every year a Brevet is organized for the route, and we would be in the middle of a throng of cyclists heading south by coincidence. A Brevet is a cycling event where you ride unsupported from A to Z within a maximum time (in this case 30 days), along a mandatory route passing through control points. While in Omapere enjoying a glass of wine on the deck with Jim and Susan we began to see cyclists with bike packing gear go by on the road which clued us in to our ride’s timing. It was very inspiring and confidence building to see a bunch of cyclists on the same route after having not seen many at all doing what we are doing.

Off we went on our next leg knowing this was going to be a very hilly day on the highway again and possibly with some rain. The ride was indeed hilly (over 1000m in elevation gain) but in more of a gradual way after an initial sharp climb out of Omapere. What was fun though was chatting with the cyclists we came across throughout the day. It was mostly the same dozen or so folks, either Kiwis or Aussies and one young American. Surprisingly, most riders were all right around our age, such a nice bunch and of course quite fit. One lady in particular just cruised away from us on the uphills, saying “I just love the climbs”, wow! The ride this day took us back up the mountain past Tane Mahuta and through the kauri forest again except we kept on going. The road was good and it was fun coming down the other side through the dense foliage of the Waipoua forest.

We arrived at our Kaihu holiday park, which was in a fairly remote spot, in good time and dry. The hardy bunch we had been with most of the day carried on another 35kms to Dargaville, leaving us thankful to relax but maybe feeling a bit whimpy… The evening’s food choice was limited, whatever the holiday park had stocked up on, for us a frozen pizza and a can of kumara (sweet potato) soup (and an ice cream), no fresh vegetables unfortunately. Late afternoon the rain came pouring down as soaked and dirty riders kept coming into the camp, about 20 or so stopping here for the night, many tenting it in a good downpour. Yea, we’re happy in our small but dry cabin.

The following morning we waited until the rain stopped before setting out for Dargaville, only 35kms so not concerned about covering much distance, though it was almost all gravel and hilly, so slow going. It was very windy but no rain. Again we were following the TA route but we left later than all the others who had to ride farther so we didn’t see many cyclists today, just a few not on the tour like us. Dargaville is a medium sized town with good amenities and a few attractions. We stayed in a nice family run hotel with a pool but unfortunately not warm enough to swim. We visited the Dargaville museum and learned about the kauri logging history in the area as well as the kauri gumdiggers, who interestingly are almost all from the Dalmatian coast. We had wanted to take a ride out to the west coast and ride on the beach (apparently the longest rideable beach in NZ at 100kms) but the wind was extremely strong again from the west. This wind was affecting some of the TA riders in that the small ferry boat that transports you from Pouto Point to Helensville had to cancel their once daily sailing due to wind and swell. This left 45 riders stranded overnight at the small and remote campground hall in Pouto Point until the next morning when things settled down. This left us somewhat anxious about our reserved spot on the boat for the next day but messages on a facebook group gave us hope it would be okay. The weather forecast promised improvement.

We were concerned about the wind for our trip but luckily things did settle down for our ride. However, it was still one of the tougher rides we’ve done this trip at 70kms and over 900m of elevation gain. In addition there are no resources (stores, toilets, water, etc) from about 12kms out of Dargaville until you reach Pouto. The road was quiet and well paved until the last 10kms where it turned to rough gravel with lots of washboard and big stones along with more hills, making that last leg very challenging. At times we had to walk as we were skidding too much. In addition there were some vehicles on the road causing big dust clouds so we arrived at Pouto Point feeling quite done for the day. To our pleasant surprise we had the use of the campground hall, kitchen, washrooms, showers and there was a small store selling limited groceries and ice cream! Just what we needed to restore ourselves. There were a few other TA cyclists there who welcomed us when we arrived and more kept arriving as we waited for the 6pm ferry. This ferry is a special arrangement by a fellow with a small ferryboat to help the TA cyclists and others crossing over to Helensville. He only does it according to need, not regularly, and we had booked it months ago thankfully, not realizing we would be in the throng of TA riders. This section is called the Kaipara Missing Link and saves you riding about 250kms on highways around the inlet. The captain times the trip with low tide, hence the 6pm departure for a 3 hour ride. The bikes are loaded directly from a ramp lowered to the beach, to the top of the boat and then we get on via the same ramp. On our trip we only had about 20 bikes so not a full load. It was a super fun and unique experience and we all relaxed on the cozy boat ride with tea, biscuits and hotdogs served while chatting with our new found companions. We arrived after dark, unloaded the bikes, got our strong lights out and found our accommodations for the night, not very far away. It turns out this is another area where geothermal hot water is used, in this case for our private hottub at the hotel. We tried it the next morning; as it was we were exhausted and fell into our beds.

The next day was our final ride of the trip, back to Auckland. It was a nice day and a good ride with only about 15kms on the highway. Again it was quite hilly with over 700m elevation gain but it is getting easier. New Zealand is an extremely hilly place, at least where we rode on the North Island. You are rarely riding on flat ground for long, so quite challenging, but our legs have gained some strength. The rest of the ride was on small country roads, paved, and then almost entirely separate bike trails to get through Auckland (very good trail system in the city) and back to our starting place where the bike cases were stored for the past 7 weeks. It’s always a bit bittersweet to finish up these trips and we can’t believe how fast the time goes.

Our final day in Auckland was spent breaking down and packing up the bike and getting organized to fly out. We also did some souvenir and gift shopping as now we don’t have to carry it on the bike. Cycle touring limits your shopping drastically while you are cycling and probably saves money. Tomorrow we fly to the main island in Fiji for a 5 day rest before heading home via Honolulu.

Tags: bikepacking, NZcycling, tandemcycling