Our longest and highest bicycle ride so far

(Paerora, New Zealand, 14th of January 2017)

We started this morning by taking the ferry to the mainland and then continued cycling the longest bike ride hitherto.

120 kilometer and 1341 meters of altitude my Garmin Computer told me by the end of the day. No less than three mountains were climbed and the first two were considerably nicer than the last one, also if all three of them had parts that were so steep that it was difficult to keep the momentum. The third mountain was probably not really worse than the first two, but when you start to get tired, everything becomes a snap worse.

We had planned to spend the night in Waihi after about 90 kilometers of biking but when we got there we realized that there was no free accommodation so after a good burger in a small street kitchen we went to Paerora. These last 25 kilometers went through a stunning beautiful nature along a river but unfortunately it was hard to enjoy partly because I was a bit tired but above all because the cars were many and the road very narrow and crooked. We did not really enjoy staying and taking photos.
To be on the safe side we had booked a room at a motel in Pareora when we realized that Waihi had no vacant accommodations, especially as we did not arrive until 8 o´clock in the evening. At the motel a very cute Chinese man received us with a big smile and we felt very welcome. With a little shaky legs, we threw us on the comfortable double bed and enjoyed the fact that we had been cycling longer than planned and having coped with today’s challenges (or at least I was happy – Johan did not think it was that hard. When I have a pulse on 150 he has around 100 …. Though I get more training than he does …).

/Christel