DAY NINETEEN: LAZY LAKES

Day 16 (Mount Maunganui to Rotorua) Daily Distance: 71.09 kms
Day 17 (Rotorua Rest Day)
Day 18 (Rotorua to Taupo) Daily Distance: 101.71 kms
Day 19 (Taupo Rest Day)
Day 20 (Taupo to National Park Village): Daily Distance: 113.65 kms
Total Distance: 1063.40 kms

During an early stop in Tauranga, I’d been told to expect some hills in between there and Rotorua, and sure enough they came in the form of two deep gorges. It was tough climbing out of these as my cycle computer ever so slowly ticked from 3.94 to 3.95 to 3.96 (and seemingly back to 3.95 as I rolled backwards...). It made me wish that I’d left OUT of my panniers the laptop, extra bike lock, jumper, two books, and in fact just about everything bar the vasoline, water and mobile phone (in case I didn’t make it). Once I conquered these, though, there was a nice long descent down to Lake Rotorua during which I almost coasted with no work required for 15 or so k’s. It was a lazy entry to the city bearing the same name.

I’ve been to Rotorua previously (with my friend Craig in 2007 when I was based in Wellington for work) and did Zorbing on that occasion, so on my full day in Rotorua while I did contemplate the long list of extreme activities offered, I settled for something more scenic in the skyline gondola to the top of Mt Ngongotaha and five luge runs back down the tracks.

Skyline Rotorua Luge

There were some very cool night markets in the city that night with an array of amazing food, quirky gifts (that I admired but didn’t purchase given the lack of room in my bags), and even live music. Even better, the city didn’t smell nearly as much as I’d remembered it did from my previous visit.

Leaving Rotorua the next day, I noticed a new, flat, bright white paved path immediately next to the motorway and considered crossing onto it for the first 20 minutes but didn’t, for fear that it would veer off and suddenly leave me heading in the wrong direction and with no easy way of re-joining the main road. Eventually, however, I saw a sign indicating that it was 'Te Ara Ahi', the Thermal By Bike Trail, so jumped onto it  - at which time the new, flat, bright white paved path of course promptly ended - and followed it down to Kerosene Creek on a trail that took a toll on both my body and bike: it was worth it when I bathed in the hot river for an hour.

One problem with New Zealand’s National Cycleway is it’s designers seem to have no appreciation for the vast difference between road, touring and mountain bikes given the trails are apparently targeting the former, but include terrain appropriate for only the latter on occasion,  as in this case when I was left riding for half an hour through a very nice, very scenic path – but one totally inappropriate for poor Javier.)

I then passed Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which, as I understand, is an attraction very similar to the aforementioned but one full of tourists and with a hefty entry fee, so decided I’d had enough bathing for one day.

I passed an enormous bike that may even have been too big for me…

And then I passed two English girls riding from Auckland to Christchurch who I’d actually met in Paeroa several days earlier, bringing my total of fellow Kiwi-touring cyclists to 11 (4 x American Left Side Riders, 2 x French couple, 1 x German life-cyclist, 1 x French guy, 2 x English girls, 1 x unknown guy way back at Cape Reinga, and I think that’s it…).

Speaking on running into fellow tourers, as soon as I arrived at the hostel in Rotorua, I ran into Left Side Ride (LSR), who I’d not seen since Paihia despite good intentions on both parts to do so. Like me, they’ve made slower progress than anticipated, but not really because of hard days riding, more so just enjoying the scenery and regular breaks more often, plus the added burden they have of shooting truckloads of footage on their array of equipment – albeit minus one camera that has since been lost – and then trawling through the footage to find the good stuff and turn it into short clips for their followers. (You should check out their summary clips for Week 1, and Week 2 -- great viewing!)

Day Nineteen happened to be Australia Day so I decided to have another day off to relax and enjoy it. What I didn’t expect was that I would jump off a 47m high platform with only a rope attached to my ankles, but that’s exactly what happened when two members of LSR decided to go Bungy Jumping and on arrival I decided that I didn’t want to miss out ... and that it was a good way to celebrate my national day.

 

Following that, we headed to some free natural thermal pools which were boiling hot – not what was needed on such a hot day - and then I explored the town and the lake before celebrating with a whole lot of Aussies who came out of the woods that Saturday night in Taupo. LSR departed that afternoon to get to Turangi, halfway to National Park Village, since it was a big ask to make it there in just one day as we’d all initially intended. I, on the other hand, had my second lazy rest day by a lake in just three days.

I left early on Day Twenty as I knew it was going to be a long day with a fair bit of climbing, and given LSRs total inability to ever depart before midday, deep down I knew that I was a good chance of making it to Turangi before they even left. Sure enough, I did run into them en route, aided by an extremely quick first 50 kms out of Taupo on quiet, descending roads with spectacular lake views the whole way. One descent even helped me cross the 70 kmph mark, a new record on either of my touring journeys.

But meeting them on the road was more of a fluke than I’d anticipated since we had actually taken separate routes out of Turangi – I had been advised by tourist information to take a route 5 or 10 kilometres longer than the main road, but significantly easier by bike given it’s gradual climb compared to the steep hike faced on the main road. LSR had unfortunately missed this advice and so were well tired by the time I met them at their milkshake stop.

It was here that I met fellow tourer #12 and soon to be famous character in this adventure: 'Fast Rene'. He is a 24 year old Dutchman who came on holidays to New Zealand not expecting to do any cycling, but inspired by a girl he met in Auckland who had a cycling journey planned, he purchased all the gear and, with a suffocating budget began his trek across the country. He had run into LSR several days earlier and then again near Turangi, so the six of us continued together to National Park Village, which pushed me past the 1,000 km mark for my Tip to Toe adventure.

That night I bought Rene a bottle of wine so he could have some drinks with us without breaking his budget, although I should have just given him the one that I consumed as, along with the rest of the drinks we downed (it was Aussie Open Final night after all) it turned into a rather large one. Not so bad if you don’t have planned one of the most beautiful (and physically demanding) hikes for the next day... but we did.

If only the next day was to be another by a lazy lake.