Leaving Auckland We left the US at 1pm on the 26th and arrived in Auckland at 5am on the 28th, and since we crossed the international dateline that meant we skipped Thanksgiving (the 27th) this year. Our arrival in Auckland went pretty smoothly, we had no problems getting through customs and the international terminal had free showers so we were able to freshen up a bit before heading out. We took a cab directly to Adventure Cycles, and spent the day working with the guys to pick out bikes. We had been under the impression that we would be able to buy bikes and leave the city that day, but that was not exactly the case. All the bikes there needed quite a bit of work before they were ready to tour with, so we ended up stuck in Auckland for 4 days before we were able to get on our way. We used our time to pick up a few last minute items, sort out our phones and prepare for the first leg of our tour.
Kawakawa Bay Once our bikes were ready, we headed South through the confusing streets and suburbs of Auckland, and spent several hours trying to find our way. After a lot of aimless wandering with a bad map and picking up bits of directions and advice from friendly passers by (including the nicest police officer I've ever met), we stopped for lunch and were able to use WiFi to get on the right track. Once we were headed in the right direction we covered a lot of ground pretty quickly, and we passed through Clevedon before spending our first night in a sheep farmers field right on the ocean in Kawakawa Bay. We had covered 82k in a little over 5 hours.
The road to Orere Point, with a view of Kawakawa Bay We woke up the next morning to sunny skies and a bunch of sheep being herded out the gate next to our tent and down the road for grazing. Since neither of us has done much cycling in the past couple of years we decided to just head 15k to Orere Point so we could set up camp early and have a bit of a rest day. We met our first serious climb right outside of Kawahara, a steep 3k hill with hairpin turns that make us question every ounce of baggage on our bikes. The rest of the road was mostly just small rolling hills, and we made it to Orere Point in a little over an hour. We stayed at a campground just a few minutes from the beach, and enjoyed a cool dip in their swimming hole in the river before taking a walk along the beach. The ocean here is an amazing shade of turquoise and it contrasts beautifully with the emerald green hills rising up from the coast.
Our route yesterday took us 78k right along the coast around the Firth of Thames, past a lake full of black swans, coastal marine reserves, through Miranda Hot pools and into Thames. We stopped for lunch along the beach, and rode the last few kilometers into Thames on the Hauraki Rail Trail. Thames is an old gold-mining town and its the first town with real amenities that we've been to since Auckland. We've decided to take a rest day here today and spend some time sightseeing, researching the next leg of our journey towards Coromandel, and getting back in touch with the outside world.
For more pictures, check out the Photo post.
For more pictures, check out the Photo post.
Lunch break on the beach
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