17th Dec 2010 - Rain, More Rain, and a Scrazed Knee
From Waipu Cove Camping and Cottages to Wenderholm Park Campsite, a distance of about 50 miles (at the moment it is raining so hard that I'm reluctant in the extreme to leave the warmth of the inner tent). We noticed that the check out time was 11am, info that destroyed all sense of urgency so we didn't get going until 11.15am. We shopped at Mawhanui, and there were chatted to by a couple of store managers one of whom had done a big chunk of Europe (but not the UK) by bike with the lady that is now his wife. Sounded fun - back in 1994 and including Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia (as was).We tried to get speed up. It is an undulating route and we started to make good time. We also used a short cut (thanks to the Four Square store managers) that avoided repeating our previous visit to Wellsford. If you take the turn marked Auckland just by the rugby club (Wellsford RC) you will be sped along a tarmac road that eventually gets you to State Highway 1. SH1 is terrible really for bikes but it got us to the Honey Farm just south of Warksworth where I (Steve) got honey and nougat. I would have sneaked in for a coffee or tea but the cafeteria was closing... Then on to the turning for Orewa. The rain got heavier and road conditions were bad. I slipped off my bike at slow speed onto the hard shoulder because the hard shoulder was badly maintained with a ledge running half way across it hidden by a couple of inches of rain. The ledge caught my wheel and I slowly toppled. Fortunately I was not hurt apart from a scraze and a kindly lorry driver told Guy that 'the person behind you has fallen off'. Most Helpful. Frankly the SH1 is not adequate for bikes as said before. What's needed is a good bike route that parallels it but doesn't involve itself in the mess that is Highway 1. But there are only two non-gravel roads up NZ at this point. Anyway, No More State Highway 1 on north island, hooray.Fortunately we were soon turning off because it turns into a motorway. And spotting a historic house sign and a camping sign we turned off for the very basic campsite I'm now sitting in, grateful that the rain is down from a roar to a few patterings. The tent is doing sterling stuff! I popped out to pay the tent fee and noted the old (by NZ standards) house and a beach between two headlands that would, on a sunny day, be a great place for a swim - the beach between two headlands is about a mile from the tent and there are impressive mangroves, ducks and historic buildings about. The photo is of Couldrey House, taken the next day when we had a wander about - because the rain had stopped by then, otherwise I think we'd have been flooded out.
From Waipu Cove Camping and Cottages to Wenderholm Park Campsite, a distance of about 50 miles (at the moment it is raining so hard that I'm reluctant in the extreme to leave the warmth of the inner tent). We noticed that the check out time was 11am, info that destroyed all sense of urgency so we didn't get going until 11.15am. We shopped at Mawhanui, and there were chatted to by a couple of store managers one of whom had done a big chunk of Europe (but not the UK) by bike with the lady that is now his wife. Sounded fun - back in 1994 and including Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia (as was).We tried to get speed up. It is an undulating route and we started to make good time. We also used a short cut (thanks to the Four Square store managers) that avoided repeating our previous visit to Wellsford. If you take the turn marked Auckland just by the rugby club (Wellsford RC) you will be sped along a tarmac road that eventually gets you to State Highway 1. SH1 is terrible really for bikes but it got us to the Honey Farm just south of Warksworth where I (Steve) got honey and nougat. I would have sneaked in for a coffee or tea but the cafeteria was closing... Then on to the turning for Orewa. The rain got heavier and road conditions were bad. I slipped off my bike at slow speed onto the hard shoulder because the hard shoulder was badly maintained with a ledge running half way across it hidden by a couple of inches of rain. The ledge caught my wheel and I slowly toppled. Fortunately I was not hurt apart from a scraze and a kindly lorry driver told Guy that 'the person behind you has fallen off'. Most Helpful. Frankly the SH1 is not adequate for bikes as said before. What's needed is a good bike route that parallels it but doesn't involve itself in the mess that is Highway 1. But there are only two non-gravel roads up NZ at this point. Anyway, No More State Highway 1 on north island, hooray.Fortunately we were soon turning off because it turns into a motorway. And spotting a historic house sign and a camping sign we turned off for the very basic campsite I'm now sitting in, grateful that the rain is down from a roar to a few patterings. The tent is doing sterling stuff! I popped out to pay the tent fee and noted the old (by NZ standards) house and a beach between two headlands that would, on a sunny day, be a great place for a swim - the beach between two headlands is about a mile from the tent and there are impressive mangroves, ducks and historic buildings about. The photo is of Couldrey House, taken the next day when we had a wander about - because the rain had stopped by then, otherwise I think we'd have been flooded out.