Category: Bike Tour

Day 4 The morning was dry, and Rett wanted to go for a run, so I mapped it into a sightseeing-run. Our hosts had a cute hand-drawn map of a nearby walk in their guidebook, so we started and ended with that, but in the middle I extended us out to the Whakarewarewa Forest. A…

Rainy weather is on the way, so we booked a roof for a week. And if it doesn’t rain as much as the forecast is saying, then there is plenty of stuff for us to do in Rotorua anyway. The rain is supposed to arrive tonight, and that’s why we decided to camp last night…

My original plan to get from Tauranga to Rotorua was the direct route, SH36. But the stress we faced with the traffic on yesterday’s “SH” (SH2), plus the big up-and-down shoulderless gorge on SH36, made me open to alternatives. Luckily, our host Barbara had some! She even called up her riding-group friend Cam to help…

In addition to the “soft amenities” we got from the kind people at Athenree Holiday Park, the “hard amenities” at our first-time NZ holiday park also exceeded our expectations. Of course there were the hot pools, and the nice clean bathrooms and showers (Rett especially loved that they provided a stack of clean rags and…

The Hauraki Rail Trail runs generally north-south, and we’ve only gone about half of its length so far. But there is an east-west offshoot through the Karangahake Gorge (that the trail guide recommends as an out-and-back while staying in Paeroa for an extra night). I hadn’t made a strong plan on where we’re headed beyond…