Pouto Point
Today was not as hilly as the first few days, but it was dry, long and hot with no shops or towns on the way. Both myself and Mike, who I was riding with, ran out of water with no sign of where we could get more. We decided to have a look in a school grounds, they usually have a drinking trough and they would be empty as it was school holidays. Just as a I started climbing the fence a car pulled up! Luckily, she was the caretaker, new about the TA, and was very happy for us to fill up bottles.
Today was very hot and along the way was a very pleasant surprise, some ‘trail angels’ giving free watermelon. It was delicious! Apparently they have been doing it since they were kids, it was very much appreciated.
Today was great, the first of many instances of people’s generosity on this ride.
The end of the ride is a Pouto Point, a tiny town and campground. Early next morning was a major ferry trip, on Kaipara Cruises, across the huge Kaipara Harbour.
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A ferry, Hot Springs and the capital, Auckland
Today started with a 4 hour ferry ride through Kaipara Harbour. The ferry is packed with bikes, there is only about 20 of us today and it looks crowded – yesterday there was about 100 on the same boat! The weather started out perfectly, a little crisp but no breeze and a gorgeous sunrise. The harbour is huge, according to their brochure New Zealand’s largest waterways, with about a 3200km coastline.
I haven’t really talked about the people on the trip yet, they have come from all over. Lots of Kiwi’s of course, quite a few from Aus, maybe half a dozen (that I have met) from Canada or the US, a few people from Amsterdam, lots of Germans. Most people are a similar age, mid-40s through to early 60s, wether this is people have the time or being aware that they are running out of time to be able to do trips like this. Probably about 80% guys, not unusual for longish events. It was a mix between people who do trips every year to other people who this is the first time they have even ridden 100km.
We all have satellite trackers for safety and it is fascinating ‘dot watching’ on the Maprogress website, seeing where everyone has reached.
At the end of the ferry ride is a small town Parakai, most well known for hot springs. I didn’t really have time but I decided to wait for a couple of hours until they opened to try them. The facility has a collection of pools, from very large to quite small, nice but I really could have done without loosing the time.
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Auckland
Today was riding into Auckland, going into cities with a fully loaded bike is a much harder prospect than on a quick to accelerate road bike. I hit Auckland at about 3PM and had to pass a school, every cyclist worst case scenario. It happened, someone not looking at anything other than the kids coming out of the school ran me off the road into loose gravel and I went down, she didn’t even notice. Luckily nothing severe but a few scrapes, a bent slightly bent brake lever and gear moved around. (Note from the future, this is was the only car incident of the whole trip). After juggling everything and getting back on I realised my front tire was flat. Tubeless means that shouldn’t have happened. I pumped it but it kept deflating all day. The course went close to a recommended shop, Benny’s Bike shop, so I dropped in. They were very busy but had seen me coming – the tracker was on the screen. Something very strange had happened to the sealant on the plane trip over, it kind of looked like detergent bubbles, not like the Orange Sealant I had left Australia with! They squeezed me in and worked wonders, new sealant and a fixed the brake lever was done incredibly quickly which had been bent went I went down, highly recommended.
After the bike shop and it was a quick ride up to another checkpoint, the highest point in Auckland, the to of Mt Eden. The view from Mt Eden of the water surround the city is stunning and well worth the ride up.
After the long day with everything that happened I decided to give myself a night at a hotel. It was nice to have a warm, dry bed. unfortunately it was little cool so I didn’t get to try their super funky pool!
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Miranda
After a surprisingly pleasant ride through industrial Southern Auckland it was back towards the coast. Down the road was Miranda, this is gorgeous town on the coast; it has lots of free camping and many, many vans were making the most of it. NZ is well known for cycle touring and we had seen many people on the same trail as we were on, a huge range of ages.
I was talking to a young women at the main shop in town who I had bumped into here and there on the trail. She was from Kalgorlie in Western Australia, a mining town. Having never ridden more than 15 km before she had had enough of mining she bought a bike with an intention to spend the next few years cycling around the world, starting at NZ because she had heard it is beautiful, good for cycling, and had a fall back relative if required. I could not imagine a more different life to a remote WA mining town than bikepacking for a few years.
The town itself is beautiful and as an added bonus the holiday park it had great hot springs, a terrific kitchen and lots of space. I would happily come back and spend a couple of days here.
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The Map
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