I spend 2 nights in an actual bed (luxury!) in Napier (famous for art deco features) and share excellent meals and stories with a friendly warmshowers host.
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| Napier beach front |
One day I cycle around some of the excellent (and flat) cycle trails in Hawke's Bay, watch the waves for a while and I spend the other day visiting the museum and repacking my panniers so that I can send two panniers home. Although the weight is a bit better in balance with packs on the front, I find it more of a hassle to have front panniers as well as rear panniers. Also I appear to have just increased my luggage with things that I do not really need because I had all this space.
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| Hawke's Bay cycle trails - flat and easy |
Anyway several kilos lighter I leave Napier early in the morning in the baking sun (30 degrees C expected). The tropical rain forest is far behind me. I am riding in one of the sunniest and driest regions in the North Island - no wonder they started to make wine... I have the wind in the side or the back and I leave the vineyards quickly for the hills. These hills are rolling, and look soft in the bright sun, covered by tall ochre grasses like a layer of fur. Cows and sheep blink sleepily at me and moo or beh at my passing and otherwise it is a lovely quiet route to Waipawa. I am glad I brought my extra 4l water bag because the streams are either dry or far away so filling up is not an easy options.
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| Wairarapa hills |
The next day bad weather and a change in the wind has been predicted and in the afternoon I see the weather front coming up from the south - the wind picks up and it is getting hard to keep the bicycle straight. I have a pub lunch at Porangahau and decide to call it a day - a lucky choice since the beach campsite had active small barchan sand dunes forming (hurrah physical geography! - can you tell from which side the wind is blowing on the photo?). The beach, and the wind and blowing sand, remind me of my fieldwork in Sweden where we investigated dunes and sand transport.
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| Porangahau Beach - weather front incoming |
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| Porangahau Beach - Barchan dunes |
The next couple of days are a bit rainy and with some hills to climb. I pass an unremarkable hill which is famous for having the longest place name of the world (beats Wales even). I have come across several different translations but it comes down to something like this: "The hill on which Tamatea, the chief of great physical stature and renown, played a lament on his flute to the memory of his brother".
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| The longest place name in the world |
The nights are quite chilly and I basically put on all my clothes but I still wake up from the cold and I try out different methods to get warm. In the end a hot water bottle seems to work best for me. Route 52 keeps on winding through lovely farm country and I enjoy the peace and quiet and lack of traffic. It reminds me of southern Scotland, only hotter and with more exotic trees.
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| Wairarapa - route 52 |
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| Wairarapa - route 52 |
I camp by a tavern, next to a rugby field (that is being grazed by sheep), and in a sheep pasture.
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| Wairarapa - Alfredton domain campsite |
Headwinds unfortunately the last days, increasing in strength. I have some interesting meetings those days; I meet a woman named after Ronja the robber's daughter (one of my my favourite books!); I meet some kiwi cyclists who share a tompoes/custard square with me and claim it is a NZ delicacy?! - I claim it as a Dutch delicacy!; and at some point when I am having lunch sheltering from the wind in a bus shelter an old man kindly invites me in for a cup of tea. It turns out Henk is Dutch originally and emigrated 60 odd years ago to take up farming in NZ after the war. In Martinborough I have a rest day to wash (and sample some local Pinot Gris) and I chat to so many people at the campsite that I am ready for some alone time again.
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| Lake Ferry - looking at the Rimutaka Range |
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| Cape Palliser coast road |
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| Cape Palliser lighthouse |
I continue on to Cape Palliser which follows a nice coastal road. I can see the vague shapes and many clouds of the South Island. The name Aoteoroa, meaning the land of the long white cloud, seems very apt. At the Cape there is a colony of sea lions residing at some rocks and I spend some happy hours watching the sea lion mothers and pups/babies mainly sleep, move over a bit, sleep some more, and some hungry youngsters suckling and wailing.
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| They are resting... not dead. |
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| dried up baby sea lion |
After an excellent tosti at the food truck in Ngawi - and some chats of course - I cycle back on the same road and arrive at the Putangirua Pinnacles in the end of the afternoon. I walk up the streambed to look at the pinnacles, which are up in the valley. They are wonderful badland features and, although I do not recognize the LOTR scene exactly, I do get the feeling and I keep thinking "The Way is shut", especially since I am alone and the shadows are rising.
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| Putangirua Pinnacles |
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| Putangirua Pinnacles |
On the way back to the road I am treated with 2 quail families again. One with teenagers running around sedately, but one papa Quail has a miniature baby that he passes the stream with. Papa tests the waters so to speak for a while and calls out when he thinks it is safe. I stay still and watch. The baby fluffball comes running out from under the shrubs and runs after papa but is distracted by the water and remains floating in the stream. Papa hasn't noticed and run off. Screeching wildly and scolding the baby papa returns a moment later to get his infant to follow him, right now please. I sit there quietly laughing my head off. I arrive quite late at the campsite and decide I need a rest day tomorrow. At the excellent campsite lounge I spend a lazy day watching some films and reading.
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| Papa and baby Quail |
The following day starts rainy again but I leave dry. After my second attempt of leaving (I had lost my gps somehow) I cycle 15 km up into the valley to cross the river and go south again on the other side. I ride into a bicycle road race and pass many smiling hard working cyclists going the other way. I have lunch in some drizzle and ride down onto Ocean Beach - the last part of the Rimutaka Cycle Trail. The clouds are coming down and instead of staying at the last campsite I decide to cycle on because a lot of rain is expected and I have to cross a number of fords.
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| Rimutaka Cycle Trail - Ocean Beach |
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| Rimutaka Cycle Trail - Ocean Beach road |
The gravel road has been washed out recently and there are some steep bits where I walk and/or push instead of cycle because of the steep drop offs. This is not for the faint hearted and I am glad for my fat tires with grip. The road comes down again to the wild coastline. Clouds move over the 800m high hills that I know are there but cannot see. I hear gulls but do not see them flying. I hear the waves on the stony beaches. The road is wet and the sand and pebble beaches are dark grey. Grey is this day's colour where the sea becomes cloud and vice versa and I move through the cloud on my trusty blue bike. The streams are wet and most of them too big and full of loose rocks to cycle through. I push on.
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| Ford crossing - I'm having so much fun! |
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| Beach, sand, cloud, hills |
I arrive at a cycle barrier which I would be a bit annoyed by since you have to remove your panniers to fit through but, since I have literally just been overtaken by two motorbikes wanting to have some rough riding, I can see the need for those barriers. It is getting late and I put up the tent on some raised beaches (more geological coastal features!). The beach is full of Paua sea shells - lovely colours.
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| Paua |
In the morning I watch some sea lions. I think they are males, they keep a careful distance from each other. They sprawl here and there over the rocks and cough bark a bit when I come too close but mostly they are just resting. I cycle the last kilometers of 4WD road to Orongorongo station and hit the tarmac. By that stage it is a relief to ride on a regular road surface again. The valley heading north is lovely, full of pukekos, sheep, and regenerating bush. At the end of the valley the heavy rain starts and I have an uncomfortable half hour heading up a two lane busy road with partly no road shoulder in the pouring rain. On the other side I head down into Petone where I wring out my cycling gloves to have a look at my phone, my fingers are wrinkled like dried prunes. I cycle along Petone Esplanade and follow the cycle path next to the highway into Wellington. I arrive at the B&B soaked and wrinkled and smelly. A bit of luxury now!
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