Day 7

Hahei Bay to Whagamata 62km

Once again I ran into Gerta, once again at the top of a big hill. She had run into a car camper from Germany and looked happy to be speaking the native language. I waved and headed on down and onto the next hill. THe east coast of the Coromandel is really quite beautiful even, as Nigel says in the rain. It did rain briefly, long enough for me to get out the raincoat and start the ascent of the Opoiutere saddle. At the top I was wetter on the inside than the outside, but then the sun came out and I finished several apples before a very scenic ride down into Whagamata. Well, mostly scenic--it is quite sad to see the forest cutting industry has done to NZ what they've done to the Pacific Northwest. Beautiful forests between vast swaths of complete devestation. But then again I own several wooden guitars.

I ran into Gerta again, this time at the Subway in Whangamata. She decided to press on to Hahei. I noticed a big hill between Whangamata and Hahei and set of to find a camp site, where I set up my tent next to Tia and Kurt from Holland. The next morning I day breakfast with them where the regaled me with stories of their world touring adventures: Chile, South Africa, Sri Lanka, around the perimeter of the continental US. I asked them how far they've pedalled their bikes and they had no idea. But volunteered that Kurt, with his yearly tour and just commuting around Holland does about 20,0000km a year, Tia only 15,000km. That's about halfway around the globe each year. Apparently they belong to a cycling club that hands out a little globe when you finish 40,000km (the circumference of the earth). Kurt quite reporting his miles after his fourth globe.