6th Dec 2010 - The Unbearable Awkwardness of (getting out of) Auckland
From Auckland to Whangateau Family Holiday Park. About 53 miles (c. 85 kms). The morning was pretty busy since Guy needed to fit his tyre and then we wanted to book a train/ferry ticket all the way from Auckland to Picton on South Island - this is so we can be on the quieter island when it gets to be Christmas. We managed to book the tickets for the 20th December. The ferries get very booked up over Christmas so you have to book ahead. Then we got the ferry across the harbour to Devonport (really wanted the ferry to Gulf Harbour but that only runs commuting hours - would have allowed us to mias the endless suburban sprawl of Auckland), had a first lunch there outside the New World supermarket, looked for books (which we haven't the space to carry) in Devonport's secondhand bookshops and finally cycled out on Lake Road. The main road out of Auckland is the SH1 and it's a motorway with bikes banned. After Lake Road we found our way to the East Coast Road which held good pretty much to the big junction where we deviated off to Orewa, where Steve went to the sea and floated around in the small (yes, very) surf - you can see the situation in the picture, taken just after my dip. Surf vans were drawn up with sad looking surfers - though the water was really warm 'cos it is shallow a long way out (indeed, I found it hard to get out of knee depth). Then we ploughed on inland to where the coast road meets the SH1, by now no longer a motorway, and headed north.This is very like cycling on a busy bit of the non-motorway A1 in the UK. The problem is that there is not a continuous shoulder all along it that is fit to cycle on at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour, plus slow bits where we crawl up steep hills. The shoulder is sometimes good but sometimes they have skimped on the tarmac, just doing up to the white line in smooth stuff. And sometimes the shoulder disappears - most notably at just about every bridge - so at most valley bottoms. And the huge trailer pulling trucks are often not inclined to obey the law that you see advertised about giving bikes 1.5m room.... so a truck goes past at high speed rather too near. Cars are mostly ok apart from the fairly rare bone head. They also put studs and textures into the white line so crossing the line between shoulder and carriageway requires care - especially after speeding down a hill and reaching a bridge with no shoulder... And then there are glass bottles and tops ready to slice your tyre if you aren't paying attention. So you really do need to take care on SH1 and similar. Passed a honey farm just before Warkworth but we were, as cyclists so often are, a bit too slow to catch them open... [We managed to visit it in the end, when we were cycling back down from Cape Reinga - see the entry for 17th December].Anyhow, reached Warkworth without too much trouble and headed off towards Whangateau and Leigh. A much quieter road though fast. Sped along to Whangateau and pitched, cooked and read. Two excellent beers - Wobbly Boot (dark beer) from Harringtons and Pig and Whistle (Harringtons again). The Wobbly Boot is superb and deserves a prize. Hope we see the brewery in Christchurch.Interesting fact of the day - Auckland has only 1 million inhabitants but sprawls over approx the same area as London due to its low rise bungalow and lawn infested nature. Makes it a bit unmanageable surely if oil ever gets really dear.
From Auckland to Whangateau Family Holiday Park. About 53 miles (c. 85 kms). The morning was pretty busy since Guy needed to fit his tyre and then we wanted to book a train/ferry ticket all the way from Auckland to Picton on South Island - this is so we can be on the quieter island when it gets to be Christmas. We managed to book the tickets for the 20th December. The ferries get very booked up over Christmas so you have to book ahead. Then we got the ferry across the harbour to Devonport (really wanted the ferry to Gulf Harbour but that only runs commuting hours - would have allowed us to mias the endless suburban sprawl of Auckland), had a first lunch there outside the New World supermarket, looked for books (which we haven't the space to carry) in Devonport's secondhand bookshops and finally cycled out on Lake Road. The main road out of Auckland is the SH1 and it's a motorway with bikes banned. After Lake Road we found our way to the East Coast Road which held good pretty much to the big junction where we deviated off to Orewa, where Steve went to the sea and floated around in the small (yes, very) surf - you can see the situation in the picture, taken just after my dip. Surf vans were drawn up with sad looking surfers - though the water was really warm 'cos it is shallow a long way out (indeed, I found it hard to get out of knee depth). Then we ploughed on inland to where the coast road meets the SH1, by now no longer a motorway, and headed north.This is very like cycling on a busy bit of the non-motorway A1 in the UK. The problem is that there is not a continuous shoulder all along it that is fit to cycle on at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour, plus slow bits where we crawl up steep hills. The shoulder is sometimes good but sometimes they have skimped on the tarmac, just doing up to the white line in smooth stuff. And sometimes the shoulder disappears - most notably at just about every bridge - so at most valley bottoms. And the huge trailer pulling trucks are often not inclined to obey the law that you see advertised about giving bikes 1.5m room.... so a truck goes past at high speed rather too near. Cars are mostly ok apart from the fairly rare bone head. They also put studs and textures into the white line so crossing the line between shoulder and carriageway requires care - especially after speeding down a hill and reaching a bridge with no shoulder... And then there are glass bottles and tops ready to slice your tyre if you aren't paying attention. So you really do need to take care on SH1 and similar. Passed a honey farm just before Warkworth but we were, as cyclists so often are, a bit too slow to catch them open... [We managed to visit it in the end, when we were cycling back down from Cape Reinga - see the entry for 17th December].Anyhow, reached Warkworth without too much trouble and headed off towards Whangateau and Leigh. A much quieter road though fast. Sped along to Whangateau and pitched, cooked and read. Two excellent beers - Wobbly Boot (dark beer) from Harringtons and Pig and Whistle (Harringtons again). The Wobbly Boot is superb and deserves a prize. Hope we see the brewery in Christchurch.Interesting fact of the day - Auckland has only 1 million inhabitants but sprawls over approx the same area as London due to its low rise bungalow and lawn infested nature. Makes it a bit unmanageable surely if oil ever gets really dear.