A great first full day of cycling, but several lessons learned: Any opportunity to stop and get water or food should not be missed. I didn’t actually run out of water, but I came close. I have also somewhat underestimated how many calories I’ll be consuming. Cole, a student of mine who did a cross country tour of the USA suggested peanut butter and honey sandwiches would be an excellent staple. Smart fellow Cole. I had no idea how good three peanut butter and honey sandwiches would be, and a box of strawberries, and three apples, and two bananas, and two sausage wraps, and two fried tiapa fish sticks, and two chicken legs and a heaping plate of corn and feta cheese. Here's a picture from I guess what should be called second breakfast. I had only known of polo as a theoretical concept till today.
Anyway I’m sitting here as the sun goes down munching down the last of my M&Ms feeling not quite hungry.
The other, very important lesson is stop at the FIRST camp site I come across. I had no intention of doing nearly 100k the second day in New Zealand. 50k-75k would have been more than enough. I had the chance to stop at the holiday park at Orere Point about 60k in, but it looked kinda crowded so I pressed on down the coast of the Firth of Thames. The DOC reserve at Matingarahi was playing host to a raucous Maori party, which probably would have been quite entertaining, but I kind of wanted to sleep. So after explaining to all the cute little kids who converged on my preposterously laden bike that, no I was not the mailman, I decided to go on just a bit further. Many, many klicks later it was getting on 7:00pm with nothing but sheep and stern warning signs insisting there was to be absolutely no camping on the environmentally sensitive coastal reserves. (Not sure how environmentally sensitive the sheep would be.)
As the shadows were getting fretfully long I was getting somewhat anxious and considering wasting money on the next hotel that presented itself. I was actually getting cramps in my legs and beginning to wonder if something would show up before dark. After thinking along these lines fir a while it seemed much better to just go with the flow and let fate take its course. Once the decision was made to simply enjoy the rest of the afternoon and see what would happen, literally around the next corner was a sign announcing the happy news that the Miranda holiday park was but 2 kilometers away. Downhill as it turned out.
New Zealand Holiday Parks: Nigel Rushton’s Pedaller’s Paradise describes them as kinda pricey but a great place to meet Kiwis. No sooner had I paid the $20 for a tent site (a grand bargain all things considered) and started unpacking that a Kiwi family came over with the steaming chicken legs and veggies. It was the best meal of the day. I gratefully inhaled it while they were talking to me. Everyone I’ve meet so far wants to talk to me. I’ve read the people here are quite friendly. So far this has been more true than I imagined. Perhaps its my funny accent but, everyone wants to know where I’m from. So far a majority not only knows of Utah, but have actually been to Zion’s park. Not only friendly but well traveled! I’m beginning to think I’m from a third world country. The holiday parks are a case in point: A wonderful place with everything from tent sites to private lodges. There is a communal dining area, laundry, showers (that was VERY nice) and WiFi access. Apparently holiday parks exists all over the country. In my experience America has nothing comparable.
Anyway, no reason to complain about a place that is on the other side of the globe and in the frozen grip of winter. It’s summer here and I have Nigel’s books to give me a heads up as to what’s next. Speaking of the Pedaller’s paradise books; I came upon the first spot where one of Nigel’s topographical maps has a line that goes more or less straight up. Tuopoa hill between Kawakawa bay and Oere point: 160 meters up in about 1.3 kilometers. On my mountain bike this would be no big deal. Of course the blur doesn’t weigh 80 pounds. Immediately into the granny gear at the bottom, I was pouring sweat by the top where sure enough the Kiwis had placed a nice bench. I finished off the strawberries and the second and third peanut butter and honey sandwiches on the comfortable bench watching a procession of RV’s grind their transmissions up the final stretch. It is probably good I didn’t head to the southern island and then cross the Alps on my second day as was the plan when I was looking at Nigel’s maps sitting in the office. While nothing called Alps exist in the north, its still rather hilly. Some 100k down and around the Firth of Thames Nigel has kindly pointed out the Wangapoua hill which climbs over 350 meters in 1.5k. Nigel calls it rather steep. I might stay here at the holiday park an extra day, it has a nice hot springs I can sit in.
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