16th Dec 2010 - Early Christmas Presents for the Bikes
From Whangarei Top 10 Holiday Park to Waipu Cove Cottages and Camping, a short and speedy 33 miles (50 kms approx). It was raining when we awoke and in spite of careful dawdling it was still raining when we left. Both of us needed some repairs to our bikes and Doug (at Waitiki Landing) had mentioned that Whangarei (oh, you pronounce the wh as an f, apparently) was a good place for bike shops. And apart from seeing a closed bike shop on last Saturday pm in Kaitia (it was open in the am only) we haven't seen a bike shop for several hundred miles. So Guy bought brake blocks and new pedals [they turned out to be cheap and nasty I'm afraid and were later abandoned] while Steve bought a lovely new wheel - really solid looking double walled and heaps of spokes, so the broken spoke problem (and the bent back wheel resulting) is fixed. About 50 quid for the wheel and another tenner for fittng it all up on my bike (this required tools I don't have to transfer the freewheel and would be very heavy to carry. It has all been done very neatly and at a great price so thanks Fat Dog Bikes of Whangarei! We adjourned to the pleasant and rose bedecked garden in the drizzle so Guy could fit his new parts. Strolling in Whangerei's library I noticed a complete set of Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin novels, a coffee shop, and too expensive for me wifi. Read the NZ Herald which said that NZ has the same debt problem, with some variations, as the UK. Just as in the UK it was feqared that cuts would solve the financial issues only at the expense of creating lots of long term unemployed.We had lunch at a cafe for once - Pura Vida (doesn't that mean something like Complete Emptiness? all sounds a bit buddhist) - which had some veggie options (all day veggie breakfast and omelettes for us). The lady, in a german accent, noticed that we were rarely there at the same time (looking after bags while the other got bike bits) and said 'But zere is only one person here at a time!'.We left Whangarei late on at 4.30pm with the traffic on State Highway 1 at a peak. And the rain came back heavy at times. Can you imagine cycling on the A1 in rain across undulating to flat country? Lots of logging trucks.None too good, but for the cyclist doing around NZ there's not much choice (NZ is very narrow 5 this point). Mostly had a decent hard shoulder fortunately. I guess in a few years this will be motorway and they'll have to find a different route for bikes, etc. Unless the oil runs out first. NZ is surely very oil dependent - we've seen miniscule levels of solar and no wind power, and the railways have been neglected.Finally got to the curiously named Waipu, shopped (ah, Harrington's beers, hooray) and got along to the campsite by about 7.20pm. By paddling through a stream you can get to a beach which looks huge and has, today, modest windblown tumbling waves with an onshore force 3 breeze. A good day for a big windsurf board and a large sail.Chatted to a german girl - doing 6 months in NZ and young enough to get a working visa so she's been working 12 hr days in a fruit packing factory. But now she's doing her travelling...
From Whangarei Top 10 Holiday Park to Waipu Cove Cottages and Camping, a short and speedy 33 miles (50 kms approx). It was raining when we awoke and in spite of careful dawdling it was still raining when we left. Both of us needed some repairs to our bikes and Doug (at Waitiki Landing) had mentioned that Whangarei (oh, you pronounce the wh as an f, apparently) was a good place for bike shops. And apart from seeing a closed bike shop on last Saturday pm in Kaitia (it was open in the am only) we haven't seen a bike shop for several hundred miles. So Guy bought brake blocks and new pedals [they turned out to be cheap and nasty I'm afraid and were later abandoned] while Steve bought a lovely new wheel - really solid looking double walled and heaps of spokes, so the broken spoke problem (and the bent back wheel resulting) is fixed. About 50 quid for the wheel and another tenner for fittng it all up on my bike (this required tools I don't have to transfer the freewheel and would be very heavy to carry. It has all been done very neatly and at a great price so thanks Fat Dog Bikes of Whangarei! We adjourned to the pleasant and rose bedecked garden in the drizzle so Guy could fit his new parts. Strolling in Whangerei's library I noticed a complete set of Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin novels, a coffee shop, and too expensive for me wifi. Read the NZ Herald which said that NZ has the same debt problem, with some variations, as the UK. Just as in the UK it was feqared that cuts would solve the financial issues only at the expense of creating lots of long term unemployed.We had lunch at a cafe for once - Pura Vida (doesn't that mean something like Complete Emptiness? all sounds a bit buddhist) - which had some veggie options (all day veggie breakfast and omelettes for us). The lady, in a german accent, noticed that we were rarely there at the same time (looking after bags while the other got bike bits) and said 'But zere is only one person here at a time!'.We left Whangarei late on at 4.30pm with the traffic on State Highway 1 at a peak. And the rain came back heavy at times. Can you imagine cycling on the A1 in rain across undulating to flat country? Lots of logging trucks.None too good, but for the cyclist doing around NZ there's not much choice (NZ is very narrow 5 this point). Mostly had a decent hard shoulder fortunately. I guess in a few years this will be motorway and they'll have to find a different route for bikes, etc. Unless the oil runs out first. NZ is surely very oil dependent - we've seen miniscule levels of solar and no wind power, and the railways have been neglected.Finally got to the curiously named Waipu, shopped (ah, Harrington's beers, hooray) and got along to the campsite by about 7.20pm. By paddling through a stream you can get to a beach which looks huge and has, today, modest windblown tumbling waves with an onshore force 3 breeze. A good day for a big windsurf board and a large sail.Chatted to a german girl - doing 6 months in NZ and young enough to get a working visa so she's been working 12 hr days in a fruit packing factory. But now she's doing her travelling...