Author: Michael Naylor

Today should be the longest day but thanks to yesterday’s efforts will seem easier even if a little longer.

Both a bit weary but we had an excellent breakfast next door in The Wrinkly Ram and were off by 9.

The day was lakes and dams.  However almost immediately we found out why the pub had been so busy last night.

22,000 lambs for sale, apparently about NZ$100 each so about £1m of sheep being sold to farmers with more grass to fatten for market.

Nice flat ride.

We had a quick tea stop before climbing up to the top of Benmore Dam. A hard climb.

We then cycled round Aviemore Lake for lunch …. lovely place to stop. And a coffee van had been arranged… with a lovely cocker spaniel called Emma.

the next bit was the worst bit of all the riding down the highway.  Some big lorries.  The group was again split and we were staying outside Kurow in a beautiful B&B called Western House run by a lady from Somerset originally. After freshening up we had a wine tasting in Kurow in a place called The Vintners Drop which had wine from Ostler and superbly tutored by a guy called Jim Jerram – nice Rose, Pinot Gris and superb 2015 Pinot Noir followed by a super pizza dinner opposite in the Valley Cafe (which looks awful from outside) done in a pizza oven in the garden.

Woke early and we had both remembered Valentine’s Day! 😍

Today was a longer planned day which due to a navigation error was a lot longer than planned!

After a good breakfast we all set off for what was billed a climb and Marina was due to meet us after 2 hours for a tea break. To cut a long story short we took the wrong turn at the hotel and headed up to the Ohau Ski Lodge. 1000m climbing over 8+ km of zig zag path, very rough, and into cloud.  It was freezing at the top and we only realised after a phone call!  What a view however!Vertical Ventures were very good and after and hours cycle down we were back were we started at about 12.45 having set off a 9 and were offered lunch at the Ski Lodge.  After some discussion we all decided to start again.  After a few minutes one of the Canadian’s Judy decided she had no legs left and her husband, Bruce, also stopped.

After 13km we reached the summit we should have reached.

The ride from this point was lovely with a long stretch of paths some streams and we reached Marina after about 2 hours.

we then had the choice to cycle another 25km or stop and so in the bus.  bridget and I were the only ones who cycled!  Hard work but we can say we cycle the who trail! We were only 10 mins behind the bus. Over 63km rather than 43!

After a quick change we were off to the famous  Omarama Hot Tubs. This was followed by a well earned dinner at the local Omarama Hotel which was full of lots of local agricultural types.  We understand why tomorrow.r

We (B and I, Carol and Marina) had breakfast at a cafe in Twizel https://www.facebook.com/hydrocafetwizel/. I had a fry up but the girls all had muesli. We then joined the others at their B&B which did breakfast and set off for Ohau.  We were staying at Lake Ohau Lodge which is meant to be nice.  It was a good day of canals

and Lake trails and just over 40km (25 miles).

We stopped off for coffee where the canals enter the lake

and had a nice picnic lunch  beside another lake Just alongside Lake Ohau.

The hotel was in a lovely site just above the lake.  We went for a very cold swim in the lake with Gunner and Marion.

The views as the sun went down were lovely.

We rose early after a bad nights sleep, it had been raining had and still was. Not a good omen for a weeks cycling.

Rob from Vertical Ventures picked up us and warned us that we might not be able to do the classic start as the weather was so bad and to cloud so low the helicopters were not running to allow the river crossing.

That proved to be true, sadly. We had a very rainy drive up, stopping in Geraldine for coffee, at a nice cafe called the Running Duck. http://therunningduck.co.nz. I also bought so chilli sauce. What a surprise.

We then stopped for lunch at Tekapo http://www.run76laketekapo.co.nz/. We also stocked up on booze for dinner.

This was the start to our ride, the alternative start. Bikes were sorted out, bags given out, and the rain stopped. We had a 30km ride to Braemar Station part of the Mackenzie Farm in the Mackenzie Valley. farmside.co.nz

It was lovely to be riding, the weather did not spoil anything except the view.

On the tour are

2 Canadian couples, the husbands were at school together. They are very quiet and keep to themselves.

A great fun Oz couple, Hilda and Steve, it is here 60th the same day as Marion.

Marion and Gunner

Carol

And us.

Total 11.

Our stay was at the Shearer Hut, the Hut used in the past and was a a few rooms all inter-connected and a shower room, a separate bathroom, kitchen, and a living room. Rob got a fire going in the sitting room. Some summer!

We had tea and biscuits at 4 and dinner at 7. Dinner was steak and fresh salmon and was excellent. After dinner we sat and chatted after dinner. The Canadians were very quiet.

Then plan for Day 2 was fluid! We might we able to start at the beginning, if the weather clears and we have time or we WGT a more relaxed start at 10. What ever it would be an early start.

Day 7

We left Coromandel promptly at just after 8. Steve suggested we took the more direct x country route to Rotorua rather than the motorway. A nice drive but a bit slower through rolling countywide. All farms and small towns and nearly no traffic.

We reached Rotorua about 11.15 and after a bit of dithering decide to visit Te Puia https://tepuia.com. These are the most famous geysers and hot mud pools [wpvideo 5SRMIN5x ]in Rotorua. They were quite good but touristy and over priced in my view but nevertheless a must do. The main attraction is a geyser which goes up about 30 m every 30 mins. Fantastic when it does go off [wpvideo xeVtq8H8 ]but boring waiting for it.

We then headed off to do the cycle ride suggested by Jack and Maisie in Waiheke the Happy Ewe cycle run by Roge. https://www.happyewetours.com. We were a little early and Roge suggested parking in the Government Gardens as it was free. It was busy there organising the set up on the Sat / Sun for a 100 mile endurance race! Mad!

After grabbing a rubbery sandwich and a greasy spring roll we were ready to cycle.

They we very upright slow heavy city bikes ideal for the city but felt very strange. After a lighthearted orientation and health and safely briefing we were off with Roge. Just the three of us (amazing as the morning group was 30) so we got a very personal tour. Roge was an interesting guy and had helped set up international sporting events eg the Olympic Games for years but returned to his hometown to briefly help a sick mother and ended up by staying and setting up the business which was now 4.5 years old. His shop was only open this week after having run the business from a mobile home.

The tour was a good mix of v v easy cycling visiting the local Tamaki Maori Village. Not touristy at all. We got a better understanding of Maori history mixed with a little science, Roge has a hand held digital temperature sensor, and pointing this at the ground gives the temperature. There are underground springs trying to get out and the ground is just over 80 C in places. Weird especially the smell of hydrogen sulphide everywhere.

We then moved on to a big pool of hot water fed by springs. It was about 70 C. More knowledge of algae’s.

It was a good tour which ended up being 3.5 rather than 3 (he did ask if that was OK and could not stop explaining and showing off his hometown oddities). We had an interesting stop at a point by the lake where the last remaining acid mud bath from the Victorian age still has its wooden edges. Roge got out some litmus paper. The litmus was Red … the acid bath was PH 1! Then within 5 paces another pool was PH 11 alkaline and a few paces away another was PH 6. Extraordinary that 3 pools all within few paces could be so different.

After the tour we headed for our evening house. One of the oldest houses in Rotorua – Robertson House. Restored by an English guy John Ballard who emigrated to NZ about 15 years ago. Lovely old building. After freshening up, a bath for B and a sit for me, we headed out to the evening food market – which luckily for us is weekly on a Thursday.

After a nice lamb pitta, some chicken kebabs, a drink at the Pig and Whistle and a banana and chocolate crepe we headed home for a well deserved sleep.

Day 8

Friday. Off to Hamilton to see Kim who moved to NZ in 1994. I have not seen her since then and Bridget only once. But we could not do that without a walk in the Redwoods Forest N of Rotorua. We got there quickly as it is only 10 mins outside however it was raining again but we decided to do a route marked as 1.5 hours anyway as we did not plan to get to Kim until 12 and Hamilton is only an hour and a bit N of Rotorua. It was a nice walk through massive redwood trees and forest and it stopped raining 1/2 way round. Our drive to Hamilton was uneventful, with a quick coffee stop in a town called Cambridge, which apparently (and was) full of quaint old wooden buildings. We arrived at Kim’s house, hurray we did have the right address, 12.07. Not bad timing thanks to Google Maps and B’s navigation. B rang the bell and heard Tim (Kim’s husband) say ‘they’re here’ and the door opened. They both look exactly the same. It was lovely to see them. So easy to chat and catch up. We decided to walk from their house to Hamilton Gardens (world famous) for lunch and a walk around. The walk is about 30 mins and it was raining again but it did not seem to matter. We sat outside under an umbrella and kept on chatting over lunch. The rain stopped and we had a good stroll around the gardens and then walked back again (in the rain).After tea and some great biscuits cooked by Isobel (their daughter … who was also there) we headed off back to Aukland. The timing worked well as Tim was also taking Isobel to a party in Aukland. We arrived at the Ibis at Aukland airport at about 7 and discovered a bar/pub next door and decided to eat there. So after filling the car with petrol, so it was ready for pick up in the morning, we headed off to dinner. Nice meal with a shared bottle of red. Goats cheese salad (B) Thai beef salad (me)!After a quick repack of bags we were asleep ready for a 5.30am start. 12am. Beep beep beep beep. ‘Michael your alarm is going off!!”No it’s not!’Beep beep beep. The clock in the room had an alarm going off. A practical joke by the previous guest? Who knows but it disturbed our sleep but we were up at 5.30 but not as well rested as we might have been!

Day 5.

A two day instalment as there was no time yesterday …. well not enough anyway!

We left Waiheke after some more super museli 🙂 promptly at 9.45 for the 10.00 ferry… I was a little concerned this was not long enough but proved wrong as we walked onto the ferry at 9.57! Sad to say goodbye to Nat & Grant, they seem to have worked out a great life balance, also Shanti… and the alpacas… do they come in miniature versions?

Arrived bang on time in Aukland and the taxi ordered from Discount Taxis was there… thanks to NZ Rent a car for the tip.. and cost less than half the original journey from the airport.Our car was ready, they had expected us at 8am, however the lady serving… Marie was so helpful (the taxi tip was hers). And by 11.15 or 11.30 we were off to the next stage of the holiday.

We have an old Mazda something with 85+k km but clean and works ok but the sat nav thinks we are in Japan and is in Japanese. You get what you pay for. I used my phone with a free download to navigate instead. Our destination Mangotahi Lodge http://www.mangotahilodge.co.nz. We decided to take the scenic route using the 1st part of the Pacific Coast Highway https://www.explorecentralnorthislandnz.com/itineraries/coast-lakes-geothermals/ but as all sat navs do it directed us through some very dodgy areas before we were going the right way. Quite nice trip but with no where much to stop and signs of lots of coastal erosion of road from storms. We arrived in Thames in the Coromandel for a late lunch at Cafe Melbourne http://cafemelbourne.co.nz and it was nice. Note the link does not work so maybe it is quite new but it is in trip advisor.We bought some beer and wine from the bottle shop and headed up for our new home for the next two nights.

We were greated by the dog Beer and then Karyn and a bit later her husband Steve. What a nice couple, what a nice spot, what a super room, what a great view. (I think you might get we like it!).We got ourselves settled and did a quick trip out to the park entrance to see where we we going tomorrow and headed back for dinner which we were told would be 6.30 to 7.

It turns out we’re eating with them…. not sure I expected that but it was really nice. Super meal of rib of beef, beans, potatoes, garlic bread and salad follows by a super cheesecake and lots of good chat over the table.

We were in bed by 9.

Day 6.

We were up early waking at 6…. slept well.Today the walk to The Pinnacles. http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/coromandel/places/coromandel-forest-park/things-to-do/kauaeranga-kauri-trail/. Ever since seeing this I wanted to do it. After a super breakfast with enough food to make a picnic lunch we were off and at the car park end (a 10 km drive up a drift track) Just after 8 in the pouring rain. This was NOT the plan. After it stopped we set off. What a super walk but it was so so wet. It took some 2 hours to walk scramble and navigate rivers bridges etc to get to the Pinnacles Hut (a backpacker hut for 80) and the stopping off point for a 1 hour climb to the top. After a brief stop of 1/2 a croissant with jam from breakfast and so peanuts we decided to do that last leg. This was fun but slippery. The view from the top looked like this. It should look like this.Then time to head back. We had planned to do a different route down via what is known as the Billy Goat track but when we got to the path split there were signs saying a bridge was down and to not attempt to do the route in wet weather. Well it was very wet and we had been walking in rain all day off and on so we decided to go back the way we came. As we had planned to eat lunch at this point (known as Hydro Dam) we sat under a bush and finished the sandwiches we had made from the left over breakfast and some watermelon and headed down. It was much harder than I expected but so glad we made the effort.

So some 6 hours later we were back at the car and did a quick look around the Park offices and exhibits. Not that exciting.

As we were not ready to go back we decided to explore the west coast a bit and go and have tea at a cafe in Waiomu. https://www.thecoromandel.com/explore/listing/waiomu-cafe. The lady serving us was miserable but we had good cake and coffee and then explored the beach a bit.On our return Steve “fired up” the hot tub… an interesting combi fire / gas burner thing and we ended up sitting for ages just enjoying the view and chatting before dinner.

Dinner was just 3 of us with Steve off at a meeting a great “Penang” style chicken potato coconut milk curry and a blueberry pavlova to finish. Spoilt.

Ready for Rotorua tomorrow.

Well we woke after a better nights sleep than could be expected given the 13 hour time difference at not long after 7am.

Breakfast was waiting.

The best muesli ever. There was a raspberry compote and banana under oats, peanuts, goji berries, grapes, raisins, peach, coconut, sunflower seeds…. and there were 4 bowls. More on that later.

So we were starving and munched down a bowl each and realised that the other guests had left early and were no longer there, was that another bowl each then? No that would be piggy.

We found the WiFi code and caught up with messages etc and then decided to explore the hammocks in the garden.

[wpvideo Rs9DKDzi ]

We were then hungry again and the museli was still there. Nat the owner said “just eat it” and so we did!

We then set off at 10.15 on our island tour with Nat and Shanti the dog. www.waitktitours.com. What a good day, we visited lots of different view points, a cafe, 2 wineries, had a bush walk and more. Nat was a fountain of knowledge of birds fauna history and made the day fun. I think a lot of research and thought goes into what will suit each tour and it was just right for us. We also found out more about her and Grant and how they ended up running the businesses, so nice to have it shared and the enthusiasm they have for the life.

Palm bay.

The Batch Vineyard for lunch. Excellent fish cakes and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc purchased to take away. https://www.batchwinery.comThen a bush walk to work off lunch.

[wpvideo 6Kh005Yy ]

followed by another wine tasting at Kennedy Point the only organic vineyard on the island. Excellent tasting with Peter White one of the owners. It is tiny. http://www.kennedypointvineyard.com. We bought an excellent 2015 Syrah one of only bottles grown from 300 vines.

We finished the tour in Oneroa the main shopping area of Waiheke and the obvious tourist spot…. too many people but nice shops full of things. We decided we would eat in and drink the Syrah and bought supper… from http://www.theislandgrocer.co.nz a lovely deli and ended up with some super local sausages, a courgette some wonky local tomatoes a green pepper a shallot and some new potatoes.

We ended about 4 and it was hot and sticky (about 27C) and a plan was hatched to walk to Palm bay for a swim once it got a bit cooler and we ended up in the sea about 6 for a really refreshing swim followed by a ice cream and a walk back.

The hot tub was then a must and a nice soak at 38.5C ended the exercise for the day. Once we had showered and sorted out our bags ready for leaving the next day it was 7.30+. Shanti came to help cook.but was too slow to get the potato we dropped (or does not like potatoes).

Some new guests arrived about 8.30 a young couple Jack and Maisie from the UK who have been travelling for over 2 years in Australia working in dairy farms, fruit picking and a ski season N or Melbourne and now are travelling NZ (since Dec). Makes our holiday seem so short.

We swapped stories got a great tip for a cycle tour in Rotorua and ate our enormous supper, drank the excellent Syrah and finished with a bit a chocolate. Not a bad life.

Ready for the Coromandel tomorrow.

Arrived on time 😀

The Singapore airlines plane is enormous against Virgin!

We had a really nice taxi driver who has lived in Aukland for 30 years and (was originally from Sacramento CA.. apparently people do move from CA to NZ it’s much safer which didn’t surprise me) he pointed out some slights at a distance and has obviously got the rugby bug.

We got the 13.30 Ferry (fullers.co.nz) with less than a minute to spare and a 35 min crossing.

On arrival Nat was there from http://www.waihekeislandguesthouse.com and we had a brief trip in the mini bus with another couple who were over for a wedding.

We have the room at the top of the ‘house’ but not sure house is the right word as is a series of interconnected blue corrugated iron covered wooden buildings.

We then then decided to do a quick walk down the hill to Ostend and Belgium St where there are some shops. Not very interesting but we did managed to buy some beer (https://speights.co.nz/products/gold-medal-ale/speights-gold-medal-ale) and a bottle of red merlot (https://www.yealands.co.nz/international/our-wines/peter-yealands/eco) and have a nice ice cream.

We then decided to walk to Onetangi Beach a steep walk up to a viewpoint.

The beach at Onetangi looked so nice we decided to walk down. Only another 30 mins. Once there after a barefoot stroll across the beach we then decided to have a drink. Firstly at The Boathouse (http://www.boathousewaiheke.co.nz). Bridget had a tasteless Apple Cider and I had a craft lager. Both disappointing so moved onto Charlie Farley’s (http://charliefarleys.co.nz). Better beer and cider plus a blues band playing. https://michaelnaylor.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/img_2523-1.movIt was then time to walk back. It was not too far but we were getting tired. The plan was a pizza delivered! However when we phoned sadly all the delivery slots were booked so after walking all the way back we needed to walk back down to Ostend to get a take away pizza. We were exhausted and had walked over 10km and after eating collapsed into bed and slept very well.