Author: neil

We still have ten days until our flight out of New Zealand (to Hawaii!), but today will be our last “big” ride on these islands. And staying true to our relatively-unstructured meanderings around this country, we’re taking the long way, climbing high into the mountains and taking two days to reach Kerikeri, when we could…

We woke to a completely dry tent, inside and out, for perhaps the first time when camping in Northland. And it was relatively warm at 45 degrees, presumably due to our low-elevation proximity to the sea. Still, that’s not exactly balmy, so I really don’t get the people I’ve noticed recently in campgrounds taking morning…

Yesterday’s day off got us in shape for today’s long ride, so we were once again awake in time to see the sunrise. And once again the deeply-carved ridges and valleys cut by Hokianga Harbor created one of the most beautiful backdrops we’ve seen in this country seemingly constructed of nothing but beautiful backdrops. Once…

Day 2 At the Rawene Holiday Park, we could have pitched our tent, and still would have had use of shared (kitchen + bath) facilities. But those facilities had limited lounge space, making it less-than-appetizing to camp in this cool weather. They also have a range of cabins, and the most-basic would have solved that…

As we were preparing for bed last night, I was surprised to see my headlamp lighting up small raindrops in front of my face. We were still supposed to be in a rain-free period here! I pulled up the forecast, and yeah, no rain in Northland, “except for an odd shower on the west coast”.…