Paul's Touring Blog

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Update Day 24, 22-2-2026 (2-21-2026 in the US)

Added posts for days 13 and 14. Currently in Devonport after a short ride from Sheffield to avoid what is supposed to be a rainy day — it is but not downpours. All good, though. I can use some time off the bike.

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We got up in the morning, used the facilities and got a tour of Lindsay’s Man Cave. Somewhere in that time, Dana got coffee at the shop down the street. On the way out, I stopped at that same shop, got a breakfast pie, and met two nice women cyclists and started chatting with them. Dana soon joined and we learned Gwen was a semi-retired travelling nurse. She would go back for a number of weeks, just to earn enough to finance here next bike trip. Can’t remember exactly but I think Donna was also a nurse, but fully retired.

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Ad’s & Anna’s breakfast spread was as delicious and filling as the lasagna. We all had our fill and lots of good-byes and well wishes. Charlie & Daisy headed out north (from whence we came) and Anna insisted we take some food with us since the route Ad had given us passed up the supermarket. Hearts full, we headed out for Waiau.

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We set an alarm to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, we were at a spot on the beach that was facing ENE, so we got a secondary sunrise over the top of the extinct volcano crater that is Marfells Beach. It was still spectacular. We made coffee and walked on the beach a bit, then packed up the tent and gear and headed on to our WS hosts, Ad & Anna in Kaikoura.

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Our little railroad car was quite comfortable and the kitchenette made making coffee and breakfast much easier. We packed up and headed back into town as there is a hardware store that is open on Sunday and I needed a couple of metric screws to attach Dana’s third water bottle cage. Very windy today and my bike blew over while I was working on Dana’s. We’re heading into that SE wind today heading south on RT 1.

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Another early day as we wanted to get to Wellington to see some of its sights before hopping on the ferry to Picton & the South Island. We did see Catherine for a brief moment as she was letting Sponge out, but everyone was still in bed and by the time we packed everything up and got the bikes loaded at 8:30 AM, still no signs of life and we didn’t want to disturb anyone’s Saturday sleep-in. I sent a note to Dylan thanking him and Catherine for the great stay, and we set off for Wellington.

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We’d been carrying a bag of oatmeal since Te Kauwhata and finally opened it for breakfast, with a side of coffee from the convenient little kitchenette in our room. Today was going to be a long day, so we needed the fuel. We both enjoyed the respite from riding and got a great sleep to prep us for the ride to Pukerua Bay.

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The last post of the Timber Trail saga. We had a good rest and woke early at 6:00. Got packed up and hit the trail again. 20 km (12 mi) left to go. There were still some ups and downs, but there were also some very good downhill sections with a nice crushed gravel surface and we were able to pick up some speed. 

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It rained most of the night. We got up at 6 am to get an early start on the next part of the trail. We skipped making coffee and breakfast to get on the way faster. Cloudy, but no more rain. Already we were having doubts about how rough this trail was (we had info that it was gravel, but mostly it was single track MTB intermediate level). However, our only other option was to back track the way we came and ride by road to Taumarunui where we were catching the bus on Thursday. That option didn’t appeal to either of us, so we sallied on.

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A hearty cup of coffee, yogurt, cereal and some more lively discussions, goodbyes and thanks to Marin and John, and we were off to Pureora and the Timber Trail. A quick stop in town to get a tarp for a tent footprint, and we headed out. A little drizzle started falling just a few miles outside of Otorohanga, and soon was a steady rain.