Rawene to Opinoni.
Daily total: 22.22km Running total: 241.19km
Woke up to the view across the habour completely obscured by the morning fog. You could feel the sun trying to punch it's way through the thick haze.
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| Waiting at the ferry morning view. |
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| Morning view. |
Just missed the ferry, so spent the hour waiting for the next ferry showing the little Mauri kid from my lift to the ferry how to use my digital camera.
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| The kid takes not a shabby photo. |
Short day on the road to Opinoni. Big distance planned for tomorrow through the Waipoua Forest which I have been told has some big old hills going on. Had to contend with some long steep hills. Hills lined with skinned animals drying in the sun on barbed wire fences.
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| Campsite view at Opononi. |
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| Country, cider and sun. |
Opononi was a quiet little place. Sandy beaches. Spent part of the afternoon, chilling in the sun with some cider as a country and western band played on in the background whilst the old folk of the town busted out their line dancing moves on the dance floor. Night rolled round and I went to sleep.
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| Sun set at Opononi. |
Day 5. Hills, hills, hills.
Ahipara to Rawene.
Daily total: 69.7km Running total: 218.97km Boat total: 2km
Feeling ready for the next leg of the journey. Been told that the proposed route is pretty flat. My idea of pretty flat is radically different to the Kiwi of pretty flat. A route littered with hills. But then, where ever there is an uphill, there is almost certainly a downhill at some point.
The forests mark a nice contrast to the shadeless expanses of 90 Mile Beach. Groupings of forest offering a pine tinted rest bite from the omnipresent sun. Despite lower temperatures compared to places like the Philippines, the sun is brutal in NZ due to the depleted ozone layer.
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| Tea break. |
After one of the breaks in the forest I found a random old Dutch couple just chilling in a bush by the side of the road. Instinct telling me that if you find someone hanging out in a bush, go talk to them. Or was don't talk to the bush dwellers? I had stopped, so no choice in the matter. They had cups of tea on the go. How can not trust someone when they have tea on tap? They were heading North from Auckland. In their time, they had cycled all round Europe, including over the Pyrenees but they said that nothing had prepared them for the hills of New Zealand.
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| On the road to Kohukohu. |
I made good time to Kohukohu so decided to plough on through to Opononi which required a ferry across the water. Started chatting to random on the boat and before the end of the 2km ferry ride I found myself agreeing to join them to a random gathering.
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