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Waiheke Island

The rain started to ease the day we left Auckland and we took the short ferry to Waiheke Island. The temperature remained on the cool side and the wind high but at least we were not getting drenched in minutes. Waiheke reminds me somewhat of Saltspring Island with a bit of a hippy vibe while also having some very opulent estates on the hills. It is very green and tropical with many trees, plants and flowers that we see in Hawaii. There are many beautiful bays, beaches and walking paths to enjoy here which we took advantage of however it remained showery for most of the time we were here. We stayed in a suite within a home and it was lovely and comfortable with a large garden out back and a patio to relax on when the sun came out.

We did one cycle loop of about half the island on the nicest day and despite it only being about 20kms we had a few big climbs so it was good training, not too easy. The other 2 days, in between showers, we walked on some of the many hiking paths (Te Ara Hura) leading to beautiful vistas and through the bush. We have started to see the many sheep in New Zealand, apparently 5X more than people. We are also seeing many different birds that we’ve never seen before such as oystercatchers, fantails, herons, and godwits. We are on the hunt for the Blue Penguins that live here but haven’t been lucky yet.

To leave Waiheke we rode to the east end of the island which is much less developed and took a ferry out of Man O’War bay, and over to Coromandel town on the peninsula of the same name. This ride too wasn’t very far, but involved 2 notable climbs of which one was on a gravelly washboard road so the going was slow. We had allowed enough time though and arrived in time for a snack and drink in a lovely vineyard cafe as a reward for our efforts. We were certainly the only cyclists on that road, however the drivers seemed tolerant of us. We don’t see too many people powered bikes here, similar to Europe and home. The ferry ride across the Firth of Thames was a bit bumpy but enjoyable with only 4 passengers (and 4 washrooms) on this crossing so it felt like our own private yacht. The 4 staff members were very friendly and interested in our journey.

The ride into Coromandel Town was fairly short and flat so a nice way to end the day. Our plan from here was to cross to the east side of the Coromandel Peninsula and ride south to Tauranga over the next week. However, the heavy rains we experienced in Auckland hit even harder in this region causing many mud ‘slips’ onto the highways and one deadly one on Mt. Manganui into a caravan park with 6 people killed. The roads are still being cleared and fixed and we have no certainty when they will reopen so we have been forced to do a major reroute, unfortunately. Instead we will be heading south on the west side of the Coromandel and making our way to Tauranga from an alternate route.

Tags: NewZealand, tandemcycling

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HNL, Auckland and Unusual Weather

22 Jan

Our lovely friend Rob brought us to the airport with our new bike cases and the rest of the luggage on an unusually warm Calgary day in January for our Westjet flight to Honolulu (HNL). There was some trepidation about the level of scrutiny the U.S. border guys would give us but we went through that, and security, in record time, perhaps, due to the Nexus cards we now have. Westjet got us to HNL without issue and we took the hotel shuttle to our airport hotel for the night. The hotel itself was underwhelming and expensive for our 8 hour stay. Back to HNL on the 6:00am shuttle we went, only to discover the Air NZ flight was delayed by more than an hour, leaving us lamenting the extra hour of sleep we missed. But, Air NZ made up for it in lovely service, great food, and the luxury of their ‘skycouch’ which we opted for. This upgrade gave us an entire row with a footrest that raised 90 degrees creating a platform to snooze on. Getting through NZ customs was also easy, and off we went by pre-booked shuttle to our hotel in the Parnell suburb. The weather all over the North Island was, unfortunately, ‘wit’ (kiwi word for wet). In fact the next day it set precipitation records in some parts, even causing deaths from landslides, and flooding roads in areas that we plan to go to in the near future. Happily the rain has stopped now and is not expected to that degree in the week ahead. The Parnell hotel turned out to be perfect for our needs and the 3 days in Auckland went by quickly. We missed some outdoor activities we had planned, but did get to the Auckland Museum. The museum houses exhibits on natural history, NZ history, Maori culture, and included a Maori Cultural Experience/performance. It was all well worth the price of admission. The rain quit overnight on Thursday and we headed to the ferry for Waiheke Island, riding on the left side of the road very cautiously, and successfully completed a few right hand turns into the correct lane! I should mention that the hotel did give us a momentary scare saying they had no room to store our luggage and the unknown employee who okayed this months ago never should have. After seeing for ourselves there was room in their luggage room we convinced the manager it would work, and she acquiesced. Yikes, all over again? We took an earlier ferry than planned as we had time, and we are very happy with our first few hours on Waiheke. Island vibes definitely and the sun came out in full force in the afternoon. We are staying in a suite within a local lady’s house. The host is lovely and the suite has everything we need.

Tags: auckland, New Zealand, NZcycling, tandemcycling

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Categories 2026

Cycling in Aoteoroa – New Zealand

13 Jan

We are leaving the Canadian winter behind for a long awaited trip to the deep South Pacific, a part of the world not seen by Tara, and not by George in 45 years(!). This will be a different adventure from cycling in Europe where bike paths and trails parallel to highways are relatively common. For one, everyone rides and drives on the left side of the road. Two, the cycling infrastructure has not progressed as it has in Europe, probably because the density of people is much less in New Zealand, and Three (?). But from our research, they are busy catching up. We will be staying for 3, 4, and 5 nights in places along the route and taking day trips out and back, rather than 2 or 3 nights most commonly on our previous rides. There are 23 ‘Great Rides’ identified across the country many of which are old rail trails and many others which are gravel pathways. We will be on several of these on our planned route, which you can see above. Also we take several ferries as this is an island nation after all. With our bike we can ride on gravel as well as tarmac (kiwi word) and where we are on smaller roadways (most of the time) there isn’t likely to be much traffic.

New Zealand is bigger than we initially thought, from a ‘cycling the whole thing’ perspective. We will only be on the northern half of the north island, and even then will be using a train, and a bus, and a longish ferry (straight lines on the map) to help cover the territory. We essentially do a loop east and south of Auckland where we begin, and then a north loop up to the Bay of Islands. We are fortunate to have planned in visits with NZ friends and Calgary friends as part of the north loop.

On Saturday the 17th of January we fly to Honolulu direct from Calgary, overnighting only, before flying onward to Auckland over the dateline into Monday. This breaks up what would otherwise be a 14 hour flight, and that’s only from Vancouver. Once we are finished our seven weeks of cycling and return to Auckland, we head to Fiji for a week of rest (phew!) on the way back to Honolulu, and home. We trust that our new bike cases will be waiting for us in Auckland when we get there. Now I have trackers on the bike as well as each piece of luggage so I will be watching… (see the last blog entry and images below)