Day 10: Waiheke Island to Coromandel
March 7th 2014
Distance cycled: 15 km
Total distance to date: 530 km
I had to leave Waiheke today, which meant in turn leaving Roger and Els' house. It was hard to go! They were such excellent hosts. Roger gave my bike a once over this morning, offered me beer and coffee and breakfast for two days straight, I had my own room, etc etc. They're the kind of hosts that make you excited to get home so you can pay forward the excellent hospitality to other cyclists. And plus they were just cool people, smart and funny and educated. Their life is one I would be glad to have. Live and work on an island? Yes please!
Man, I cycled so little today, I feel guilty for not just calling it a rest day. All I had to do today was bike to the ferry terminal on the other side of Waiheke Island. There were some KILLER hills though, so that's a little bit redeeming, right?
I slept in until 9, had coffee with Roger and then another coffee, tinkered with my bike, took my sweet time packing everything up, gathered fruit from the garden to take with for snacks... basically killed time until midday, when I could think of no other excuse not to leave.
Once on the main road I met another cyclist. He was from Japan and only on Waiheke for the day. We biked down to Onetangi Beach together and had a drink. Yes, another coffee. I'm an addict. So sue me.
My cycling friend Harito seemed to be impressed with my ten words of Japanese.
Finally, I struck out for Orapiu Ferry Terminal, along some of the most beautiful landscape I've seen so far, and so remote too! The east side of the island is barely inhabited - all the "action" is on the west half of Waiheke.
There were these awesome star trees (I think they're called New Zealand Christmas trees?);
Finally, at the top of the longest hill, I stopped for some food. Jealous of my hilltop picnic spot?
Yeah so I pedaled (and partially walked) up the hill to get there, and sweated up a storm. Totally worth it. The 2km downhill ride from there to the ferry terminal was super fun, too.
The ferry terminal was little more than a dock leading out into the water. You can see it behind my bike in this panoramic pic:
Immediately upon arrival I came into contact with a self-described "skinny old man" named Robbie who had a lot to say. He was very sweet and we had a surreal conversation, one where you don't talk about the normal get-to-know-ya stuff but a whole host of other things that don't make sense to talk about but just feel right in the moment. He gave me the idea to harvest mussels, which you could do at this beach without penalty. I also talked to a fisherman, who further elaborated on the mussels, telling me there were 3 kinds: blue, black, and green. Everyone has their own opinion as to which is the best. Finally a lady married to one of the fishermen talked with me a bit. She commended me on my travels, said I was brave to be doing it and that she wished she had my courage. I said that most people aren't stupid enough to do something like this!
The ferry came and pulled up to the dock. I had to partially unload my bike to board as the bike had to be lifted to get it on board. At Roger's there was a scale I could use, and I was able to confirm my suspicion that I am carrying 20kg on a 15kg bike. Lifting all that onto a boat just was not going to happen. But with the help of a really cheery ferry employee, my bike made it onboard and before I knew it, we were speeding away from Waiheke as the sun set behind the island.
Once we arrived at the Coromandel, I had to act fast to get all my stuff off the boat and up the ramp so I could catch the shuttle bus. There were a bunch of cyclists boarding the boat now bound for Auckland, which made unloading very difficult for me as I had to handle the panniers separately from the bike and could only do it in shifts. I was glad to see so many cyclists - there must have been about 30 of them! - but I needed them out of my way! Otherwise I'd be cycling the 10km to the Coromandel township in the dark.
Luckily, I caught the shuttle bus. The driver loaded my bike onto the trailer and called me "kid". Then he asked if I was a kid. I said "I'd better not be. I'm nearly 30!" To which he replied, "I'm 65 and still think like a 28-year-old. I never look in the mirror because I hate thinking I might feel like that guy looks!"
At the campsite near the township, I steamed and ate the mussels I had harvested. Not all of them opened but the ones that did often had tiny crabs in them. I feel bad for killing the mussels' crab friends! Or maybe the mussels were eating the crabs. Or trying to fight them off, I don't know. Now I'll play the waiting game to see if I've poisoned myself somehow with dodgy shellfish.
posted by Kyla @ 14:39
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