Total distance: 10300 km
Wellington - Wanganui - National Park Village - Taupo - Rotorua - Coromandel Peninsula - Auckland
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| Cook Strait |
As suggested by many cyclists we hopped on a the Intercity Bus to get out off the capital's traffic. The bus ride was smooth and our bicycles were well taken care of. The bus driver was a cyclist himself and put our bicycles in a big luggage compartment. That bus ride was definitely the safest for our bicycles on our whole trip! We were surprised how efficiently and professionally the long-distance bus network works in New Zealand as we were in any country that does not have a dense railway network like Western Europe. Does Germany have such long-distance bus services? No clue.
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| Peter's prayer at Jerusalem |
From Wanganui we cycled along a river road and visited places with names like Jerusalem, London, Corinth and Athens all in one day. The place is pretty remote and people are warned by a sign-post to use their mobile phones to arrange accommodation beforehand - no mobile phone network on the whole way. Some km before Jerusalem tarmac stops and gravel road starts. Normally not a big deal, but the gradient plus the loose gravel made it impossible to ride. For the first time we had to push our bicycles for a while. When we arrived in Jerusalem, Peter sent a prayer to heaven but it was unheard. The gravel road continued after Jerusalem and became even worse. Anyway, the nice scenery made up for the hard effort.
In Raitihi we have got the best road information. We asked at the i-Site how long it would take from Raitihi to National Park Village, 35 km on a hilly road. "20 minutes", "But we are on bicycles", "Oh, ok, a bit longer, 40 minutes". Of course, it took us more than 40 minutes to the Tongariro National Park, with its three impressive volcanoes - Mt.Ruapehu, Mt.Tongariro and Mt.Ngauruhoe. Lord Of The Rings fans know one of the
volcanoes as Mt.Doom.
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| Mt Doom |
We stayed here for a few days and did the famous Tongariro Crossing. This is an one-day-walk, 18,5km long, where you see the nicest parts of the National Park. We had already heard before that it can get crowded on the track on a nice day, but didn't really expect soo many people there. Busloads of tourists arrived with us at the start of the walk in the morning and there is really no way to get lost. You just have to follow the crowds. However, this didn't make the walk any less beautiful. Walking up we were in a big cloud, it was windy and we were freezing. But once we got to the top, suddenly the clouds disappeared, the sun and blue sky came out and we had a beautiful view over the volcanoes, the crater lake and the whole mountain range. Walking down was hard on our knees and for the next two days our legs were really sore and we almost couldn't walk. But we could cycle :)
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| Tongariro Alpine Crossing: Emerald Lakes |
So we went along Lake Taupo, to Taupo city and on to Rotorua. On the way we visited Wai-O-Tapu, the 'geothermal wonderland' with differently colored pools, steaming grounds, bubbling mud pools, sinter terraces and so on. Not far from there we spent a night at Waikite Valley. This was a tip we got from another cyclist that we had met on the way. Waikite Valley has a huge boiling spring, which discharges 40-50 litres per second at a temperature of 98 degrees. There is camping ground next to it and adjacent to it are different hot pools, with cooled down water from the spring. To get here we had to climb quite a bit, but we were rewarded with an evening of soaking in the hot pools. I think this was one of our favourite places on the whole trip so far.
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| Waikite Valley Hot Springs |
From there we continued to Rotorua, the city most famous for the volcanic activity in the region. At the campsite there was a big sign announcing the 'world famous heated tent sites'. Naive as we were we thought that was really cool and were a bit disappointed when the lady at the reception told us to put up our tent at a place that was not marked as a heated tent site. But we saw that there was a hot little stream running next to the tent site area and so we thought if we just put the tent close to it we might have a bit of heating at least. We felt the ground and it was only luke warm at some places but we thought that it would be better than nothing. Ha, that wasn't very clever. At night when we went into the tent, it was hot. Really hot! All the hot steam coming out of the grass got stuck under the tent and we felt like a fish in a frying pan and didn't sleep much that night.
From here it was not far to the coast and then to the Coromandel Peninsula. In the end we had a lot of time left and so we took it really easy for the last 10 days. We only cycled every second day and really short distances, something between 30 and 60 km per day. The rest of the time we were hanging out at the beaches, went for walks etc. We visited Hot Water Beach, where normally at low tide you can dig a whole in the sand and as there is a hot spring below the beach, the hole fills up with warm water and you have your own hot pool right at the beach. Well, normally ... Of course when we were there, there were huge waves and a really high tide, so the part of the beach where usually you have to dig, was inaccessible.
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| Goodbye New Zealand: Sarah & Judy at airport |
From Coromandel Town we then took a ferry to Auckland and this is where we are right now. Judy - a former colleague of mine from France - lives here now and invited us to stay with her. So we had the luxury of sleeping under a real roof, in a real bed, something we haven't had since our arrival in New Zealand. And on Thursday we flew home! Incredible that our journey is over already. In the beginning when we started our 10-month long trip, 10 months sounded like an eternity and now its over and time was just flying past so quickly. Now we are half sad, because it's over already and half happy, to get back home and see our families and friends again....
From here it was not far to the coast and then to the Coromandel Peninsula. In the end we had a lot of time left and so we took it really easy for the last 10 days. We only cycled every second day and really short distances, something between 30 and 60 km per day. The rest of the time we were hanging out at the beaches, went for walks etc. We visited Hot Water Beach, where normally at low tide you can dig a whole in the sand and as there is a hot spring below the beach, the hole fills up with warm water and you have your own hot pool right at the beach. Well, normally ... Of course when we were there, there were huge waves and a really high tide, so the part of the beach where usually you have to dig, was inaccessible.
