Category: Bike Tour

  • Tutukaka, NZ

    Tutukaka, NZ

    Day 2 Dive day at the Poor Knights Islands! Well, not really “diving” for us. We wanted to do the tour company’s snorkeling tour, but now that we’re in the off-season they combine us snorkelers with the scuba divers on the same boat. So the dive office was a flurry of activity in the morning,…

  • Whangarei, NZ to Tutukaka, NZ

    Whangarei, NZ to Tutukaka, NZ

    Overnight drizzle and plenty of condensation made for a soaking wet tent in the morning, but I was able to hang up the rainfly in the sun while we ate breakfast to get it mostly dried out. The eating area at this holiday park is semi-outdoors, and with the sun it was comfortable enough, but…

  • Auckland, NZ to Whangarei, NZ

    Auckland, NZ to Whangarei, NZ

    We had time to kill between the 10am checkout from our high-rise AirBNB and our 1pm bus. There were a couple of parklets built into the intersection nearest the AirBNB, so we started out there, and then eventually walked the bikes a couple blocks down to a Turkish restaurant for lunch. The friendly-but-pessimistic owner wondered…

  • Hunua, NZ to Auckland, NZ

    Hunua, NZ to Auckland, NZ

    No signs of our barn-rave remained in the morning, with Steve either still sleeping off his Coronas, or (as a true veteran partier) already out for the day. On our way out Rett briefly visited his shed to make an honor donation in exchange for his generosity with his home-grown produce. The morning continued yesterday’s…

  • Thames, NZ to Hunua, NZ

    Thames, NZ to Hunua, NZ

    When we left the Auckland area in November, we needed three days of riding around the coast to get to Thames. For the return we’d be taking a more-direct overland route requiring just two days. Well, “Auckland area” is doing quite a bit of work there; our target this time was the Papakura train station,…