Travelupdate: Finding our rhythm

After our touchdown in New-Zealand and recovering of being ill, we had to find our rhythm and comfort in the cycling and camping.

Leaving the city
We left Auckland by train to skip cycling on the busy roads near Auckland. It was easy getting on the train with our bikes and got out in Papakura. it was a fun ride because a lot of people were curious what we’re up to. From Papakura we cycled our first 50 km which was great fun, glad to leave the city behind.

Flat like at home
The second day we cycled along the Pacific Coast Highway. “Beautiful views and after a nice descent almost 70km of flat, just like at home” a Kiwi said. So we aspected a easy day. We were wrong with 70km of New-Zealands head wind and heat. Along the way we met another cyclist with an actionfigure on his bike (actionman_now_retired). We had some fish and chips and at the end of the day we were completely done.

Starting to enjoy it
We started of early the next day because of the aspected warm weather and the first steap climb. We left at 8.30, it was cloudy for al long time and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. The cycling went great and we really enjoyed it. The climb was hard, hot and painfull but the view and lunch on top made it all worth the effort. 65km later we ended up in Coromandel town at a campsite near the beach.

Name the hills
The following day we did a 65 km ride which was off course hilly again. And when you’re cycling (read struggeling) with 5km per hour up a hill you tend to doubt the choise we made to go by bike. But we made the best of it by giving the hills nicknames. So we cycled over Bitch Hill, then came Workout Hill, followed by This roadbuilder isn’t a cyclist Hill and we finished with Dessert Hill before entering Withianga.

Support from the kiwi’sT

The best thing about cycling is that wherever you go people come to you for a chat. They are just curious, or had seen us cycling up the hill and are amased or are just drawn by the look of the bikes. And no they are not electric bikes! :).

Getting contact so easy is lovely, it creates a more deep travel experience and leads to genureus offers. Like a free night on a campsite or an offer for a ride along with a truck. But must importantly it keeps us motivated to keep on cycling.

At this point our bikecomputer displays 360 km, a good start to get used to it all. And after four days of cycling we stayed two days in Withianga to relax, wash our clothes and enjoy the beautiful tropical surroundings.

And we can say that we have found our rhythm.

Start early, enjoy the ride, eat fresh, have some energy left at the end of the day and sleep like baby’s.