Many hills to climb to get to Coromandel!

(Coromandel Town, New Zealand, 10th of January 2017)

Today’s destination was Coromandel – a small town on the west coast of the Peninsula on New Zeeland’s east coast. It was not a very long trip, but we knew that a number of mountains would turn up, and after yesterday’s hardships the planned XNUMX kilometerns felt just enough.

We were served breakfast by our furious hostess at our guesthouse from 8 so we could not get away until around 9 this morning. It was raining a bit but to get to a new place you have to ride your bike, so that is what you do. And once you sit on the bike, everything feels better, also if we said that we would not have been cycling on a day like this if we did not have to.

The first half of the day the road was almost flat and stretched along the coast. Very beautiful but very windy and with our usual luck the wind had turned during the night so we had headwinds just like the day before although we cycled in the opposite direction. Today’s first mountain of just over 2 kilometers felt very easy, although sometimes it was terribly steep.

The first half of the day the road was almost flat and stretched along the coast. Very beautiful but very windy and with our usual luck the wind had turned during the night so we had headwinds just like the day before although we cycled in the opposite direction. Today’s first mountain of just over 2 kilometers felt very easy, although sometimes it was terribly steep.

The traffic was quite calm, so I enjoyed driving slalom up the slopes whenever possible. After a short rest it was time for the next mountain, and this too was steep but a little shorter. Then, as a reward, we received a long nice downhill where you could breathe and enjoy the view. The last mountain was tough – a 1,5 km long climb, which sometimes was so steep that it was impossible not to swear.

You could guess we were happy when we after XNUMX kilometers came to Coromandel town. We sat down outside a bakery where we had chicken and vegetable pie for lunch. Both cheap and tasty! Then I went and provisioned food for supper and breakfast.
Sadly, we now discovered that the campground I had booked was a little out of town. The stretch had not really been a problem, but when you have just cycled up three mountains you do not want an undesirable extra mountain … .and what was exactly what we got. But the road was incredibly beautiful and soon everything felt ok again. We got a tiny room that reminded a bit about an aquarium with a huge glass door, but it was clean and nice and lay next to the water. Toilet and kitchen were 20 meters away.
For dinner we cooked rump steak, salad and boiled potatoes and it tasted divine. Our tired bodies rested the rest of the afternoon – we were definately worth it.

/Christel