Many people had told me not to ride along Highway 2 along the Bay of Plenty as it is called the "death road" for cyclists. It is really busy and there is not verge on the edge. However, load of other people had also recommended seeing the East Coast of the North Island and riding round the peninsular. I was running out of time to see the East Coast and get to Auckland for my flight on the 25th. Fortunately a few days ago Neil offered to lend me his old car "Spot" and so I planned to fit in a visit to see the East Coast just in one day. Today was the day!
Up early to get all of my things together. The weather had changed from yesterdays heavy rain and gales to a lovely sunny day. Spot has been having a few engine issues and so I drove out towards the East Coast very slowly and stopped off at all the towns on the way to explore. I had a look round Katikati, Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki and popped in for a coffee at Ohope. The beach along the way is really lovely along some stretches and so I also had a little stroll.
It is 214km from Neils house in Katikati to Omaio where I left spot but it had taken me ages to get there and I did not head off on my bike until about 2.30. I was glad that I had done the stretch of road from Katikati to Omaio by car as the other people were right - the road was very busy and there was no verge for cyclists to use. The road along the East coast is great for biking though. The views are fantastic and the roads are quite and winding and rolling with only a few really steep sections.
Unfortunately there was no circular route that I could take to get back to Spot and so I just headed out for about 60km and then turned round and came back. I was very glad that I did make the effort to go and see this area of NZ. Apparently it is a poor area of NZ and has a large population of Maoris. I saw this with the large number of Marae - the Maori gathering places. The homes did not seem that different to me to the rest of NZ though and I was not sure why it is such a poor area.
People in NZ have great post boxes. This one that was a microwave has to be one of the best I have seen :-)
As usual I tried to fit too much into the day and just timed it right to get back to Spot as the sun was going down. It was a great sunset and I watched the sun disappear under the horizon leaning on the car and taking photos. I did not get back to Neil's until 12.45 and by the time I got to bed it was 1.30. Good day!
Up early to get all of my things together. The weather had changed from yesterdays heavy rain and gales to a lovely sunny day. Spot has been having a few engine issues and so I drove out towards the East Coast very slowly and stopped off at all the towns on the way to explore. I had a look round Katikati, Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki and popped in for a coffee at Ohope. The beach along the way is really lovely along some stretches and so I also had a little stroll.
It is 214km from Neils house in Katikati to Omaio where I left spot but it had taken me ages to get there and I did not head off on my bike until about 2.30. I was glad that I had done the stretch of road from Katikati to Omaio by car as the other people were right - the road was very busy and there was no verge for cyclists to use. The road along the East coast is great for biking though. The views are fantastic and the roads are quite and winding and rolling with only a few really steep sections.
Unfortunately there was no circular route that I could take to get back to Spot and so I just headed out for about 60km and then turned round and came back. I was very glad that I did make the effort to go and see this area of NZ. Apparently it is a poor area of NZ and has a large population of Maoris. I saw this with the large number of Marae - the Maori gathering places. The homes did not seem that different to me to the rest of NZ though and I was not sure why it is such a poor area.
People in NZ have great post boxes. This one that was a microwave has to be one of the best I have seen :-)
As usual I tried to fit too much into the day and just timed it right to get back to Spot as the sun was going down. It was a great sunset and I watched the sun disappear under the horizon leaning on the car and taking photos. I did not get back to Neil's until 12.45 and by the time I got to bed it was 1.30. Good day!
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