Day 21: Owhango to National Park Village
March 18th 2014
Distance cycled: 47 km
Total distance to date: 1103 km
This morning I took my time packing up camp. Mark and Toni had plans to go to Taupo early so they left before I did. They locked up the house when they went. I was going to wait for the condensation on my rainfly to dry a bit but then I realized I needed to use the bathroom and I'd have to go to the cafe in town for that. So that speeded up my packing quite a bit.
In Owhango, just 1km away from the farmhouse, I parked outside the only open storefront. It was a cafe that seemed oddly familiar, because of a sign that said "Dinner 1st Friday of every month - reservations essential". I had been to a cafe that had something like that, I thought to myself. Then I opened the door and walked inside and realized I had been to this cafe before. My sister and I had gone there on our road trip through New Zealand! We had freedom camped in Owhango as well, on some side street near a horse paddock. That must have been nearly a month ago now. The same woman was even working at the cafe. Talk about déjà vu.
I had the choice today to try to take a rough mountain bike track to the Bridge to Nowhere, followed by an expensive motorboat trip down the river, or I could take Highway 4 southbound and straight uphill. I started on the highway but quickly tired of the traffic and took a detour onto Oio Road.
What a lovely road! Just quiet farmland and lots of cows and sheep. In the second picture, if you look closely, you'll see that all the little white dots on the hill are actually sheep.
I found this sign in Kaitieke very amusing:
Of course, the lovely downhill coasting on Oio Road was followed by gravel roads. These plus Fishers Track would take me up up up to National Park Village. The gravel roads weren't too terrible. But then came Fishers Track.
Fishers Track made me wish I'd stayed on the highway. It made me vow to never take a mountain bike track again on this tour. It was bumpy and muddy and in places impossible to ride my loaded bike on. And it was only a Grade 2 trail, which is supposed to be easy! Of course, most people ride it as a downhill. And I was riding it as an uphill with a loaded bike. Not very smart.
After maybe a kilometer I realized I needed a break. I also wanted coffee and had just bought some fancy instant coffee along the lines of Starbucks Vita, where they use micro-ground coffee to improve the flavor. So I got out my campstove and pan and set to work heating water. Normally I never cook for lunch but since I had the gear out, I decided to make myself some soup. So a spicy rice and peanut soup, some coffee, a few crumpets and an apple were my midday meal.
Everything was lovely until I felt a drop of rain. Then a few more. I should have taken that as my hint to pack up all my stuff back up to protect it. I did pack up one pannier, but then sat back down to eat. Before I knew it, the rain was coming down at a steady clip and I was scrambling to get everything stuffed into the pannier and get my rain gear on.
The rain stopped and waited for me to get going again, then attacked me all the way up the track. I must have done 10km of uphill in the rain, much of it thankfully on a gravel road instead of the off-road track, each moment hoping that the next corner would prove an end to the eternal uphill. It took what felt like ages to get to town. Not too much went through my head except for "I hope this leads me someplace warm and dry" and "I should re-examine this trip because it feels like it was planned by a drunk pre-schooler."
Finally I arrived at the top of the track. I stopped to take off my shoes and wring out my socks. I looked and felt like a drowned rat.
The first place I saw was a backpackers lodge and bar. It looked deserted but a cheery handwritten sign in the window suggested otherwise. I went in.
The first thing I saw was a fireplace. I could get behind that, I thought. I went up to the bar. A young blonde lady greeted me with a warm smile.
"Hi there," I said. "I was wondering what it costs to stay the backpackers?"
"Twenty dollars, and you get your own room," the girl smiled.
Twenty dollars?!? Campsites here charge close to that. Backpackers usually go for $25-30. And here, $20 would get me my own room?
It got even better. The lady, Joy, spoke of hot showers, free laundry and delicious home cooking done by the in-house chef, all of which was beautiful music to my ears. Dinner would include a free beer or glass of wine. I couldn't believe my luck. I decided at once I would stay the night. It was 4:30 pm. Another smiley employee helped me bring my bike and gear in. I would have all afternoon and evening to get showered and warm and fed. I could completely unpack my panniers and let them air out. My bike was safe in the back room. I was in heaven. This little skiing lodge, skint for guests in the off-season, was so happy to have me and made me feel so welcome. I am going to write them an absolutely glowing review on Trip Advisor.
The ride tomorrow will be almost entirely downhill with nice views, according to one local chap who has ridden it. All the locals I talked to here seem to be extremely into outdoor sports of one sort or another. They are a ragtag bunch, the people that I met in this lodge, stopping in for a beer after work, but they are all very friendly. Today was a lesson in true Kiwi hospitality!
posted by Kyla @ 17:04
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home