Cycled from Whaitanga Harbourside Holiday Park to Hannaford's Wharf - a total of about 60 km, so about 40 miles. Then got the ferry into Auckland where we are now at rest in the Youth Hostel dining room plowing our way through a very large amount of tea, preceded by a bottle of DB Export. Ah they have teapots here....! The ride from Whaitanga went over a modest col early on, but then, between Te Rerenga and Coromandel Town there was a really impressive climb, I guess of over a thousand feet, with stunning views over the Coromandel coast. We saw lots of fishing tackle and boats today - this is evidently a favourite place to go out on the sea to catch fish. In Coromandel Town we booked ferry tickets to Auckland and discovered we had one hour to get to the little Wharf where the boats call. This sounded OK but we couldn't afford a puncture. About half way Guy got a puncture.... We fixed this as rapidly as possible and sped on. Guy's bike was limping along because the whole tyre had been blown open along a slit and it looked like the slit could spread. We headed along a road that turned to gravel, bah...! But we did make it with about 10 mins to spare. The boat sped along (catamaran) between the islands of Auckland Harbour with tremendous views of sea, islands and mountain. It reminded me of a greek ferry weaving its way in the cyclades. But without the jangly music. Anyway, booked in, ate tofu in a cheap Thai place and returned with milk and a bottle of DB Export (NZ's historic beer apparently) to the hostel.
Cycled from Whaitanga Harbourside Holiday Park to Hannaford's Wharf - a total of about 60 km, so about 40 miles. Then got the ferry into Auckland where we are now at rest in the Youth Hostel dining room plowing our way through a very large amount of tea, preceded by a bottle of DB Export. Ah they have teapots here....! The ride from Whaitanga went over a modest col early on, but then, between Te Rerenga and Coromandel Town there was a really impressive climb, I guess of over a thousand feet, with stunning views over the Coromandel coast.
We saw lots of fishing tackle and boats today - this is evidently a favourite place to go out on the sea to catch fish. In Coromandel Town we booked ferry tickets to Auckland and discovered we had one hour to get to the little Wharf where the boats call. This sounded OK but we couldn't afford a puncture. About half way Guy got a puncture.... We fixed this as rapidly as possible and sped on. Guy's bike was limping along because the whole tyre had been blown open along a slit and it looked like the slit could spread. We headed along a road that turned to gravel, bah...! But we did make it with about 10 mins to spare. The boat sped along (catamaran) between the islands of Auckland Harbour with tremendous views of sea, islands and mountain. It reminded me of a greek ferry weaving its way in the cyclades. But without the jangly music. Anyway, booked in, ate tofu in a cheap Thai place and returned with milk and a bottle of DB Export (NZ's historic beer apparently) to the hostel.