Rotoroa to Lake Okaro
Daily total: 64km Running total: 1055km Bike Costs: $40
Forgot to mention the puncture I sustained about 1km from John's house. So annoying but kind of handy happening in an (sur)urban setting. The rear tire becoming worn and a magnet for pointed objects. Second puncture of the trip!
Exited town via the sulphur planes. Yep. They did smell and very steamy. Turns out the route I took was more aimed at pedestrians than cyclists. So that kills off my rant about the lack of signs. Nope I lied. Here is the rant about the road signs. The Te Ara Ahi Cycle Trail, touted as a good ride had some mad man in charge of sign placement. In areas of multiple choice of directions, the signs vanished. You just picked a direction and hoped. Sometimes correctly, sometimes incorrectly. Whilst on a big fenced in straight, with no escape, magical signposts popping up every 100m! I'm fenced in! Where come I go other than forward? Where were you at the cross roads? Yes grr...cross. You don't trust me not to get lost on a straight road but you are more than happy to unleash me on crossroads in a place I have never been to? What was going through your head sign man?
After the madness of the signs, there was the moment. A moment that will stay with me. A moment that words and pictures will never fully describe to you, the beauty I felt from life at that moment. Even if I was with someone else, they would have not experienced what I experienced. It was a combination of differing factors that all came together at exactly the same point! So, I will try. I was off in my own little world on some quiet backroad on the way to Lake Okaro listening to the tunes of Simians Mobile Disco (namely the final track off their first album 'Attack Sustain Release'). I was plodding uphill, not much in the way to look at, the sun went in with the song slowly building up to its peak, I was building up speed during a second wind of energy going uphill listening to the track (Scott? System? One of the two). At the exact moment of 'yeah second wind', reaching the summit of the hill and the song dropping (reaching the peak before the tune drops into some bass heavy goodness), the sun reappears and the landscape explodes into action and opens to this:
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| The view at the height of the moment. The world just opened up. I was surrounded by this from the left, straight on and to the right. There was just a full frontal assault on the senses. |
It was fucking awesome.
The lake was lake like. Nowt much to write home about it. It did have 'Blue Algae' so no swimming allowed. Boo to you Blue Algae. But it was free. Free is good. The campsite was free. I'm the Blue Algae was free too. Met a couple at the campsite who I briefly spoke to in campsite in Waihi. Turns out they are Pompey folk and I bagged the 'Warm Showers' space available in Rotoroa from them. Sorry guys. Met quite a few people from the Portsmouth area but none from the Southampton area. Is Portsmouth more depressing than Southampton or are Pompey folk more adventurous? Who knows? I'll let you guys duel it out in the comments section...
I was aching a bit from the ride, so mountain biking. Yep. I fail to grasp the concept of resting. But mountain biking is so much fun. Especially when you make it to the hot pools. Sitting around in geothermically warmed pools. Then wade a few meters to the bit of the pool that is cooled by a cold stream. If only I had some booze to chill with.
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| Biksey and the view I was experiencing before the moment. |
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| Pale blue lake created by mineral deposits. There was also a green one but it did not turn out that green in the photo. |
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