Day 3: Lake Ngatu to Rawene
Feb. 27th 2014
Distance cycled: 88 km
Total distance to date: 188 km
This day started at 7 when I woke up, but I didn't get going until 9am. Slow to pack up camp, I am! Hopefully this will get better as time goes on.
I biked the 14km back to Kaitaia in under an hour, as the road was mostly flat, and stocked up on some groceries. I also went to the library again, since their wifi was free and strong. I wanted to charge my electronics and upload my blog posts but I didn't have the patience to charge all 3 devices that I have (which could all be consolidated into an iPhone but I haven't gotten that far in my life yet). So instead I took off for Ahipara, 15km away, thinking I'd stop for coffee there and charge stuff when I got there.
On the way, I realized that since I was coming from the other direction than what my guide book instructed, I'd have to turn off before actually reaching Ahipara. So I didn't actually get to go there, nor did I get my much-anticipated coffee, as there were only 2 tiny townships in the next 74km with no cafés. But I did get a quiet ride with some beautiful countryside views!
A lady in Broadwood that I talked to tried to tell me there was a huge hill coming up before arriving to Kohukohu. She lived at the top of it, so she knew. But I didn't ever see the hill she was referring to! That, or my expectations were raised by the killer hills before Broadwood. One was so steep I had to walk my bike up it for 10 minutes before it became manageable again! That was the first of what will probably be many hills in New Zealand that I will have to walk up. Speaking of which, I met a Swiss guy on a skateboard today. He and I kept passing each other, but ultimately I overtook him for good because he has to walk up all the hills.
By the time I reached Kohukohu, I'd done 84km and was ready for a beer.
I popped into the local pub for a drink at 5pm, planning on catching the next ferry to Rawene at 6pm. Immediately an old man named Frank invited me over to where he was sitting with 3 ladies, drinking coffee. Frank was about 80 and was mischievous - the ladies all told me that he would lie his ass off to me. And he did, but in a cute, elbow-nudging way, trying to convince me for instance that the barmaid was runner-up for Miss World in 2003. They all seemed tickled that I came from Seattle. Frank said I should stay for another pint but one was enough and I wanted to catch the ferry before it got too late. So off I went to bike the last 4km to the ferry terminal.
The ferry cost $2 for walk-ons (no bike surcharge), took 15 minutes and had a 24-car capacity which we were nowhere close to reaching. We sailed to Rawene.
My friend Margie was unavailable to host me but said she might have time for coffee in the morning. I went about looking for a campsite and found a gorgeous spot near the beach, complete with a fire pit.
I even got a fire lit and was able to cook my dinner on it. Feeling proud of myself for biking my longest distance to date and for making a fire, I decided to cook myself two dishes. Previously I'd been cooking only soups, as my tuna can stove is intentionally primitive and is only really designed for boiling water. But the fire gave me the option to pan-fry. So I made couscous with almonds, raisins, sweet potato and onion. Second course was egg noodles in a sauce I made from a bit of curry paste, peanuts, peanut butter and water. Maybe it's because camping makes everything taste better, or maybe it was because I spent all day cycling, or maybe I'm an alright cook, but my dinner was amazing!! It really made me miss my sister though, because she would have loved the challenge as much as I did.
Of course the day couldn't be completely perfect: after dinner as dusk turned quickly to night, I realized that the tide was coming in and swallowing up my little peninsular campsite. The water appeared still but was slowly but surely creeping up, and was already dangerously close to my bike and my tent, which I'd done a really fine job of pitching. I've never been so grateful in my life for a headlamp as I scurried to move all my stuff to higher ground.
Tomorrow I will get to visit one of the oldest and biggest kauri trees in New Zealand, called Tane Mahuta, King of the Forest.
posted by Kyla @ 19:31
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home