Do I go route A or route B?

Day 17. Choices, choices, choices
 
Tauranga to Rotoroa
Daily total: 89km Running total: 991km

Spent a few days in Tauranga as it was New Years Eve and the thought of cycling anywhere on New Years Day was terrifying. I ended up doing just that, the feared news years hangover was not that bad at all. Explored the town and went down the beach. It has a really good feel to the city. New Years was fun, nearly did not make it across the bridge (a story for another time!).

Waking up to find a new addition to the tent.

'Number one in the hood G'

This tree flowers around Christmas. It looks amazing.

This is how I started the year! Hang over rest day involving cycling and stomping up giant mounds. A bit the rock of Gibraltar but not as big nor have any of them dubious Gibraltar folk around.

Two choices to get to Rotoroa. The first being a shorter route but with steep bits (bear in mind the Kiwi definition of 'flat') whilst the other is considerably longer but not as steep. Short and steep is will be! No particular reason why other than it looked more of a straight line on the map...seemed like a good but thinking of my love of straight lines, I am beginning to question my decision making skills. The road was straight, flat and boring. Then a sign proudly announcing some up coming gorge, then, bam, mad decent to the bottom! Twisty and turney and steep as. Quality, but...gorges are made up of two halves. That much fun going down comes at a cost, the other side of the gorge was brutally steep. Had numerous rest breaks walking the bike up. Not physically possible to ride it with all the gear. They are the inverted version of hills in every sense of the word. Hills are better. All the hard work comes first and the down hill on the other side is the reward. That is the incentive to keep going. The payoff on the other side, also the view. Where's the payoff with gorges? Fun first then the hard work, rubbish deal. 

The thermal vents dotted around Rotoroa make it look like theres loads of mini fires going on. Also, all those thermal vents give the town it's own personal eggy smell. You forget about the smell until you hit another pocket of eggy stench. The first thermal vent was the most amazing thing I saw all day:

Amazing

The third area of thermal areas

Until I saw the second vent and then the third

The second. Not in sequential order.

So the first one looks pretty rubbish in comparison.

Retrospective disappointment.

 In theory, cities laid out in grid systems should be easy to navigate. Not for me. Grids throw me off completely. I have to walk over to the next block to work out if I need to be going up or down to go the right way. You have a choice of street on the left or street on the right but they both have the same name! How do I tell if I need to go left or right? Break out the google map. Nope just shows me stood in the middle of the cross roads. Thanks google maps. 

The most photographed building in NZ. No idea of the name of it.

Yeah,arty arches!

Purp...seriously, it wasn't me.

I also spent the night in my first 'Warm Showers' place. It is like the Couchsurfing website but for cyclists. It was great, the host John had dinner ready when I arrived. Happy days. 


Feel free to comment away. It can be about anything, from suggestions to places to visit, questions about how to donate to feedback about my writing skills or even if you want want to get involved. Let me know.  Due to the spiteful nature of technology, leaving comments is not a straight forward process as you think it would be...to post a comment, you need to sign in using a google account or just select the anonymous option on the drop down box. Comment away and spread the word!