Travelupdate: Daily routine

We know we don’t have a job anymore, but it doesn’t feel that way. We just developed a different daily routine and cycling is our new job.

Our daily routine
On cycling days this is how that routine generally looks like:

• 7.00 Wake up
  – Pack our sleeping bag, pillow & sleeping mat
  – Stuff it into a front pannier bag
  – Get dressed in our cycling outfit
  – Pack up the rest of our stuff
  – Pack all of our gear onto the bikes
• 07.45 Breakup the tent
• 08.00 Make breakfast and boil two eggs for the lunch. Drink some tea, have a cup of coffee and have breakfast
• 8.25 Last things
  – Put on sunscreen SPF 50
  – Pump some extra air in our tires
  – Fill our bottles with water
• 8.30 Give eachother a high five & we’re off
• 10.00 Two latte’s somewhere
• 12.00 Build some sandwiches and have lunch
• 16.00 Arrive at campsite and do some grossiers
• 16.30 Pitch the tent
• 18.00 Have a shower
• 18.30 Make dinner and have dinner
• 20.00 Do the dishes
• 21.30 ZzzzZzzzz

And thats what we did most of the days last week…

What makes traveling awesome
We left Whitianga for a 68 km ride along the coast. A bit hily and a lot of traffic but mostly a beautiful scenic route. We had some great coffee at a lovely spot (can’t remember the name).

Just before lunch we did some groceries and met Martin who invited us for lunch at his vacationhome. Because we had a rear pannier stuffed with food, lunch wasn’t necessary but the invite for a cup of tea sounded pretty good. So we had lunch on a terras overlooking a beautiful bay with good company.

This is what traveling is about and without a doubt the kiwi’s are enormously welcoming people.

We ended up in Oputerer on a cosy campsite. We pitched our tent, took a swim and baked some panecakes. Just an awesome day!

Battling headwinds
The following day we were lazy, so we took it slow. Because we thought is would be a easy day, just 55km mostly ‘flat’. After lunch the wind picked up and we had to battle a absurt strong headwind. We even had to cycle hard to get downhill. A new experience in cycling for us which was pretty tiring. We had a cosy evening with a fellow Dutch cyclist, who shared his bottle of red wine with us.

Hauraki Rail Trail
New Zealand has been investing a lot in creating all kind of cycle trails, eventually with the goal to connect them all together. We did the Hauraki Rail Trail, which was wonderful. Cycling past a old train track and going through a gorge and a kilometer long tunnel.  And this day we past the 500 kilometers.

Rotorua

The city that smells like rotten eggs, because of it’s vulcanic and geothermal environment. We stayed 6km out of the city because of that smell. It’s really weird to see such a natural phenomenon all around the town and it’s urban environment. You walk through a park, see thermal area’s and take a warm footbath a couple meters later. Our stay in Rotorua was okay, but not our preferred place to be.

Lost not found

We started with coffee in Rotorua and then followed Te ara ahi cycle trail passing more vulcanic activities. The trail started off riding along the highway but became a grade 2 MTB trail. Not made for two fully packed trekking bikes, but we made it and had a LOT of fun. The day ended with a 3 hour search for our GoPro which we lost in the last section. No luck, so we lost the camera and a week of footage :(. Nevertheless it was a great day! The next day we did the last 60km to Taupo

Our first proper NZ hike

In Taupo we stayed a couple of days to give our legs a rest again and enjoy the town, the thermal pools and the Tongariro Crossing. We also had to organize our transport to the South Island.

The Tongariro crossing was great. We started at 7 am (had to wake-up at 4am), but that made the climb pleasant because of the morning cold. We loved to be hiking again and 20km was a pleasant distance. The vulcanic scenery was beautiful and unique.

Heading down south

Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Wellington and take to ferry to the southern island. Where we are going to spend the rest of our time in New Zealand.

Some footage shot with a new GoPro 😐