More hills coming up when heading to a new city!

(Thames, New Zealand, 9th of January 2017)

Luckily we stayed in Kawakawa overnight as the next morning’s bike ride started with a 3 km long bike ride up a mountain, Te Motu Hill. For my part, it was a lot of slalom driving up the hill, it’s hard to run with the luggage on the bike although I have much lighter bags on my bike than Johan has. The slope of the mountain was very often close to 10% which I normally think is quite tough, and with luggage and a fairly untrained body it is definitely not easier.

What incredible views you pass when cycling in New Zealand. There are almost no buildings anywhere, just amazing beautiful green hills with the ocean in the background. This today’s bike ride stretched along the ocean and we stopped a few times just to take photos.

After the mountain, we knew that we could expect flat land the rest of the way to Miranda. But what a boring road it was! Admittedly, the road went along the coast but we had a strong headwind and no sunshine. The last few kilometers until Miranda, we were somewhat tired of cycling! Once in Miranda, we had planned to stay for a longer time to swim in some hot springs. It turned out that the hot springs were provided in the form of a regular pool and it did not look very tempting. Instead we took our small Trangia stove and cooked some coffee in the parking lot outside the pool area.

In the kiosk in the pool area they sold chocolate and we decided that we were worth a piece of chocolate after our rather tough bicycle tour. After the break it was time to ride again, this time our goal was Thames – another 3 kilometers along the coast. With some new energy in our bodies, these kilometers went as a dance and after a day trip of just over 8 kilometers we arrived at our destination. We had looked for a reasonably priced B & B inside the city but when we got there at 13.30 they were closed. We rode off to a park nearby and made a noodle lunch at our small camping kitchen while wating for the B & B to open again. While eating we enjoyed overlooking the Thames boule banks where the retirees were in full swing to prepare for coming boulet tournaments.
We got a room at Sunkist B & B for only 95 dollars (650 SEK) with shared bathroom but including breakfast. We did not bring our bikes up to the room but there was a small garage on the property where we could store them. The landlady of our accommodation was a very stern lady and not a person you contradict, normally we would probably have nagged a bit to get to take the bikes with us up to the room, but with her it was not really worth while.
After we had showered and changed clothes – so nice after a day on the bike – we took our bikes and went off to find a supermarket and a place to eat supper. We bought fruit, nuts, raisins, chips and soda at the store and then stopped off at a Indian restaurant on the way home and had an early supper. The food was more seasoned and spicy than most of the dishes we had in India. The rest of the evening, we devoted ourselves to rest our legs and plan upcoming trips.

/ Christel