Paul's Touring Blog

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After a good night’s sleep and some breakfast, we headed out on our way to Te Kauwhata and our Warmshowers hosts, Darren & Theresa.

But first we had some business to attend to. Our first day riding for just a few hours in the NZ sun had parts of us reddening even though we used sunscreen. We needed to get some spray sunscreen and our normal supplies of backup food of tortillas and peanut butter. We haven’t found a “superstore” equivalent to a Walmart, but we did find that K-Marts are still very prevalent here. No food, but we did get the sunscreen. A side trip to Pak’nSave and we secured the PB etc., and were on our way out of Auckland.

All the advice we got about riding south from Auckland was to take the train to get out of the city. I checked and there weren’t any trains until after 1 PM, and by that time, we’d be out of the city. It was a slow process following the “Great South Road” as every 4 or 5 km there was a little town with narrow streets and lots of shops; and fortunately for us, wide sidewalks. It wasn’t until mile 27 that we turned off the Great South Road onto a rural road. We breathed a sigh of relief as we left the busy route for a quiet side road. In a very short time we were breathing much harder as this was the start of a seven mile stretch of climbing with gradients of 6-8%. I was particularly breathing hard and it wasn’t long until I was pushing my bike up the hills (and taking frequent rests). Dana had her struggles too, but did much less walking and a lot of waiting until I caught up. This section pushed back our planned arrival at our hosts by an hour and a half. It was some real slow going.

At one point when I was laying on my handlebars, frying in the high-UV NZ sun, and gasping for breath, I saw three kids with four rugby balls walking down the hill towards me. I asked them how the game went and they said they were just playing pickup. Then one of the commented, “You are quite fit to make it up that hill!” “Well, thanks, but I’m not feeling quite so fit right now.” Giving myself a break that it was the first big ride I’d done in a couple of months, I sallied on, grateful for any bit of shade from that sun. Water was a problem, too, as I was almost out, but when I caught up with Dana, she had filled her bottles at a house on the way up the hill. Nice people everywhere!

After all the up of course, there was a great down! The down took us to the Waikato Expressway — a four lane highway with a bike lane. Best of all (for me anyway), it was very flat. Our hosts sent a message asking if we’d like them to come and pick up our bags – I had warned them we’d be later than expected. I said no, but in a while I caught up to Dana talking to a couple on the side of the road. It was Darren & Theresa, saints that they are, asking if we’d like to unload for the last 5 miles to their house. I readily agreed, but Dana the Purist, declined and kept her bags on. If you’ve read my blog from my 2022 cross country trip, you might remember I said I have no “rules” anymore. More like Calvinball than purism.

Darren and Theresa treated us to a wonderful meal and great conversation — mostly about the similarities and differences between our cultures. Darren also provided some navigation guidance and thoughts on the rest of our stay in NZ. Very appreciated. We were sated, and tired from the long day, and headed to bed for a well deserved rest. Darren and Theresa had offered a second day stay and we said we’d see how we felt in the morning. G’nite all!

To read from the beginning, click here.

We arrived in Auckland Friday the 30th at 6 AM after completely losing Thursday due to crossing the International Date Line. The flight from Baltimore to Houston was 3 1/2 hours, an hour and a half in the terminal in Houston, and a 14 1/2 hour flight from Houston to Auckland. Not very restful, but uneventful as all good flights are. It took some time to get through customs as they need to check our tent for biological pathogens. The tent passed, as did all our luggage, and within an hour we were outside the airport in the 75 degree weather putting the bikes back together.

Our new adventure takes us to New Zealand for three weeks, then to Australia for five weeks. Much of our time since the Holidays has been spent planning and packing, though if you asked us what our exact plans are, the answer would be, “Dunno, exactly.” Roughly, we’re flying from BWI to Auckland NZ, cycling through the North Island to Wellington, ferrying to the South Island and flying out of Christchurch to Melbourne.

In Australia, we’re hoping to visit Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane (and the Gold and Sun Coasts) and the Great Barrier reef. Flying a bit blind, so to speak, but we’re building on our recent upper Midwest tour and what we’ve learned about New Zealanders and Australians, and we expect we’ll be just fine.