Our next stop for the night was at Marees' and Andy's place in Oputere, friends of our last host Robin who asked them whether we could stay with them. After cycling on the Hauraki Rail Trail, we even had our own little shed behind the house at Maree's and Andy's place. It was good to not sleep in a tent because the next days were all rainy again. We stayed for three days and enjoyed not to cycle but to relax for a while, we spent our days plaing games and watching movies.
After a whole day of rain the forecast predicted two good days so we could move on. The Coromandels are really hilly and we had steeper hills than before in New Zealand. Back on the bikes we got to Hot Water Beach, a beach with a hot spring below so everybody has to dig a hole and you would have nice warm bathtub right at the beach. To cool down afterwards you can go for a swim in the sea, just awesome! Afterwards we went to Hahei and did a walk to Cathedral Cove which is a loveley beach with nice rock formations. After that we still cycled on to Ferry Landing to take a small ferry to get to Whitianga (in Maori a Wh=F). It was pretty late when we arrived there but we still cycled a bit out of the town to find a spott of grass at a farm. The next day, our last real cycle day in New Zealand, was the way to Coromandel Town. It was not very far, so we had a break in Whangapoua again at a nice beach.
The last part of the day turned out to be one of the hardest hills we'd have to climb. It was 300 meters of elevation on just 3km of road. We put some GoMo energy drink powder in our bottles, turned on some music on and just kept on pedaling. And we made it, even without a break. The view from the top was amazing and we were lucky to have such a wide view. In Coromandel we stayed with our WarmShowers host Vic and had great evening. We could sleep in on the next morning and only did a hike through the Kauri forest and along the coast. In the afternoon we cylced just a couple of kilometers to the ferry to Auckland. After a nice 2 boat ride we arrived in the heart of Auckland, huge buildings, streets and SO many people. Without any detours or visiting anything we made our way to our Couchsurfing host Anna. We stayed there for a couple of nights, cleaned our bikes for the flight and got everything organized. On Sunday we joined our host Anna to her Systema class which is a Russian martial art that relies on you building up reflexes on how to defend rather than teaching certain moves. We were beaten up quite a bit but it was a great experience nonettheless.
That was it, three months of cycling in New Zealand. A beautiful and diverse country. We enjoyed it and will definitely come back, because there are some places that we could not see or visit yet. Next stop Sydney, Australia.
All the best from New Zealand,
Keep cycling and may you always have a tailwind,
Vroni, Droni & Joni
