From Whangateau Family Holiday Park to Paparoa Motor Camp, about 56 miles (I guess about 84 kms). Headed out at about 10.20am and stopped briefly to see the Wharf at Leigh - it does indeed look great for snorkelling and there's an island just offshore called Goat Island covered in bush. Slow progress because of a big hill with a downhill that turned to gravel and then another hill after Pakiri. Finally sped up when the road wound along a valley through to Wellsford. Saw a friendly mountain biker who encouraged us onward on the first of the day's ascents. Why are racing cyclists so uncommunicative? They rarely respond to our presence with a wave - just too cool perhaps to talk to two sweaty slow heavy tourers. We are very likely doing more miles than them... Certainly more effort. Wellsford had a museum of the settlement of the area - their big day is 29th May when the celebrate the first ship leaving England. Apparently most of the migrants came from Brum or Nottingham and got a package including 50 acres of land. But the land was bush and clearing it for farming was no joke. Some simply stayed in Auckland. Gum digging was part of clearing the land - after the big kauri trees were cut down, the gum diggers dug up the lumps of resin from the centuries of kauri trees (which are restricted to this area north). Tomorrow we'll be going to the Kauri Museum. They tried to get a colony called Port Albert going, named after Queen Victoria's beloved deceased husband. It didn't work too well but Wellsford is doing OK.Lots of lovely old curious objects - gumdiggers wore a proper suit on their evenings in town or when having their proper photo taken and so saw some great old photos of the life of a gum digger.We then ploughed reluctantly along the SH1 again, now a little quieter than when we saw it near Wellington.Then turned off at Brynderwyn and made it to Paparoa by about 7pm. The hills are less steep on this side of the peninsula (at the moment at least). Paid over 7 dollars for a packet of Nut cornflakes just so we can have a breakfast tomorrow am! (that's about £3.50). $14 each for this pleasant small campsite. Enjoying Port Tarascon (Daudet, free Kindle ebook) and it seems surprisingly relevant since it is a silly french story about a colony of southern french people who are duped into founding a colony on a sodden Pacific island, led by the heroic buffoon Tartarin...
From Whangateau Family Holiday Park to Paparoa Motor Camp, about 56 miles (I guess about 84 kms). Headed out at about 10.20am and stopped briefly to see the Wharf at Leigh - it does indeed look great for snorkelling and there's an island just offshore called Goat Island covered in bush. Slow progress because of a big hill with a downhill that turned to gravel and then another hill after Pakiri. Finally sped up when the road wound along a valley through to Wellsford. Saw a friendly mountain biker who encouraged us onward on the first of the day's ascents. Why are racing cyclists so uncommunicative? They rarely respond to our presence with a wave - just too cool perhaps to talk to two sweaty slow heavy tourers. We are very likely doing more miles than them... Certainly more effort. Wellsford had a museum of the settlement of the area - their big day is 29th May when the celebrate the first ship leaving England. Apparently most of the migrants came from Brum or Nottingham and got a package including 50 acres of land. But the land was bush and clearing it for farming was no joke. Some simply stayed in Auckland. Gum digging was part of clearing the land - after the big kauri trees were cut down, the gum diggers dug up the lumps of resin from the centuries of kauri trees (which are restricted to this area north). Tomorrow we'll be going to the Kauri Museum. They tried to get a colony called Port Albert going, named after Queen Victoria's beloved deceased husband. It didn't work too well but Wellsford is doing OK.Lots of lovely old curious objects - gumdiggers wore a proper suit on their evenings in town or when having their proper photo taken and so saw some great old photos of the life of a gum digger.We then ploughed reluctantly along the SH1 again, now a little quieter than when we saw it near Wellington.Then turned off at Brynderwyn and made it to Paparoa by about 7pm. The hills are less steep on this side of the peninsula (at the moment at least). Paid over 7 dollars for a packet of Nut cornflakes just so we can have a breakfast tomorrow am! (that's about £3.50). $14 each for this pleasant small campsite. Enjoying Port Tarascon (Daudet, free Kindle ebook) and it seems surprisingly relevant since it is a silly french story about a colony of southern french people who are duped into founding a colony on a sodden Pacific island, led by the heroic buffoon Tartarin...