Tag Archives: New Zealand

Thames

31 Jan

We rode south to Thames along the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula following a beautiful coastal road except for 2 big mountains that got in the way. We were thankful that the climbs were at the start of the day rather than the end and we got an earlier start to beat some of the tourist traffic. It took almost 2 hours to get over these bumps after which it was pretty easy the rest of the ride, just rolling hills. We saw many beautiful bays, birds, and the various native trees that we can now identify. Unlike in Europe there were not many cafes along the way so when we finally came upon one we definitely stopped to enjoy a nice coffee. Another feature unlike Europe, there are many public toilets which is a very handy thing when cycling. New Zealand is known for having plenty of public facilities and we have noticed and utilized them. We aren’t having much trouble riding on the left and even amongst a decent amount of traffic on major roads. There is never enough shoulder but the drivers are overall quite well behaved and patient about passing us.

Thames is at the base of the peninsula and is famous for the gold rush which happened here starting in 1867. At this time Thames was booming and bigger than Auckland. There are still many historic hotels and other buildings dating from that time and we are staying in one of them. It is currently a Bed and Breakfast but was once a hotel as well as a brothel and other businesses. Thames is no longer booming but it does attract tourists interested in nature, hiking, fishing, cycling (it’s the start of the Hauraki Rail Trail which we will be riding on) and gold mining history.

We just had the one day to look around and visited the Gold Mine Experience museum which was an excellent way to learn about the history of the area, see how the gold was mined and go into an old shaft. This was very difficult mining starting with that it was underground, not alluvial, where the gold and silver was embedded in streaks of quartz. It was a complex and toxic process to extract the bullion but the haul was truly massive before it ran out. We also took a walk along the shore which is a tidal flat and home to many sea birds such as herons, cormorants, stilts, ducks, etc which we were able to view from a bird watch ‘hide’. The weather has really turned into a lovely summer which we greatly appreciate.

Fun with a couple of hills
Hard work for old folks
But NZ has some great cafés, sometimes just when you need one
’nuff said, keep climbing…
Had to stop for this one
Toilets got art!
Beachy lunch stop on the way south
The Lady Bowen brothel hotel B&B
View off the top terrace
This is one of the buidings for processing raw ore, and the start of the mine shafts
Underground we go
One step of separating sand and rock from gold and silver
A rebuilt steam engine which will shortly be put to actual use in the museum
Tara is the ‘stoker’ on the tandem, but this fellow is the real deal, to create steam for the engines

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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.

Arriving in AKL to the ‘wit’ weather
Walking in the rain, and holding off a fierce wind
Umbrellas and rain jackets can only do so much
Maori Cultural Experience
Build that bike!
Auckland downtown from a nice trail along the harbour
So it begins again…
Massive cruise ship as we head for Waiheke
Safely stowed
Good a spot as any for lunch
Dipping my toes in the south pacific; bracing but ok
Oneroa beach on Waiheke
Much much better!

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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)

From this old single large case…
To these two stylish and smaller cases

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