Fabric strength: It has taken some serious beating. We have heard of people losing or ripping tents while pitching theirs in Patagonia. We pitched in very strong winds which we could barely walk in and even in the middle of the night on Tierra del Fuego, and the fabric withstood such battering admirably.

Rigidity: We endured a massive thunderstorm with winds from all directions which shook the tent and bent the poles down so they touched us laying inside, for more than 12 hours on New Years Eve, 2012. Other campers bailed out and hid in their cars or the refuge shelter, while we woke up dry albeit in a ‘waterbed’ with 10cm of the wet stuff all around and underneath us.

UV resistance: Camping for more than a year in summer temperatures and in strong UV light in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Chile and the USA has caused the fabric to fade, which is to be expected. We’ve also spotted two 3mm diameter holes in the fly, probably caused by an insect of some kind. But neither has apparently weakened the fabric.

Temperature regulating: Even when the sun was beating down we were some of the few campers who could hide and stay cool in our tent because of its great venting arrangements. It is surprising warm too. Zip everything up and crawl into our down sleeping bags and we are as snug as a frog in a sock. Many times we have had to open up the tent during freezing nights because it is so well insulated.

Quick-drying: After rainy nights we’ve often had to pack the tent up dripping wet. But, pitch it again later that day and we only have to leave the doors and vents open for a short time before the inner is bone dry again. Because of this, we haven’t bothered to do what many other campers do, taking the inner down and pack it in a dry sack to try to keep the inner dry. Taking the inner down and putting it up again takes the same time as it would to dry out. Wiping the fly with a cloth to get the worst of the water/dew off helped speed the drying time up and even with a much bigger tent than others, ours dried faster.

Durability of groundsheets: We have pitched on ground that other have failed to manage and the footprint groundsheet has taken some serious beating. Bar a few holes it is still going strong and there are no holes in the sewn-in interior groundsheet.

Capacity: It is probably the only tent that can fit me inside (I’m 6’4″/194cm) where I don’t touch the walls, which has been a big problem with many other tents I’ve tried. I’ve woken up many times with a very wet sleeping bag because I’m too tall for most tents. In the Kaitum 3GT we have plenty of room to move around and not knee each other, which is rather important when you are living in such small space for so long as we did. (Another reason why we didn’t go for the heavier Keron 3GT is that it is not as wide inside.)

Pole strength: The poles when the tent was pitched flexed very well under immense pressure from strong winds in Patagonia. I did manage to break a pole when pushing it through a pole sleeve while not paying attention, but this was very easily fixed with the spare pole section that came with the tent.

You can also read our original review of the Hilleberg Kaitum 3GT. And you can read our review of the zipper failure here. Hilleberg have responded to our email and have offered to change our zippers, so we will update the blog once that has happened.

The post Review: What we like about our Hilleberg appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Original post :

I blogged last July about the problems we’d had with the zippers failing on our (otherwise wonderful) Hilleberg Kaitum 3GT tent.

Despite Hilleberg replacing the sliders on the outer tent and providing us with a discounted brand-new inner tent, our zipper frustrations have continued. We’re now stuck with an unusable tent and here’s the story of how we got here.

In August 2012 I contacted Hilleberg’s US office in Redmond, Washington to explain that three out of our tent’s five zips had broken down irreparably. They invited us to send the tent for inspection. We were staying in the Northwest of the US with warmshowers.org hosts at the time so being without the tent for a while was no big problem.

Shannon at Hilleberg told me that Petra (I assume Petra Hilleberg herself) had inspected the tent and reported that while they’d been able to replace the sliders of the outer tent, the zipper of the inner tent was just too worn down and couldn’t be mended. We were offered a discount on a new inner tent, which we decided to go for.

Petra and Shannon also said that the Kaitum 3GT was not the best tent for our purposes, despite it being clearly marketed for cycle tourers (Hilleberg’s website describes the Kaitum as a strong, robust tent which will stand up to all-season weather), and recommended that we go for the Keron, which comes in a thicker fabric with sturdier poles. Of course, we were not able to afford a brand-new tent (even at a discounted price), since we’d invested in the expensive Kaitum on the basis that it was an ideal choice for cycle tourers.

Shannon wrote to us stressing the importance of cleaning the tent zippers every day. She didn’t seem too impressed with how we’d been looking after our tent. To be fair, we’d done our best to keep it clean given the resources we had while on the road. I’d been cleaned the zippers with a toothbrush as often as I could – about once/twice a week. Shannon wrote:

“I know it is hard for you to understand the need to clean your zippers but the tent has been well used and the outer zippers had fuzz and dust in them. I cleaned up the edge of the flap covering the zippers so that should help a bit. Maintenance is as important for your tent as it is for your bike or a new car. It really helps to keep everything working well. We do recommend that you daily brush out your zippers.”

We collected the tent from Chris, their shipping manager – Shannon had let us know in advance that he’d be the only one in the office that day. I had a brief chat with him about our problems but he wasn’t able to offer much sympathy with our experience – fair enough, that’s not his job. I also picked up a letter Shannon had prepared with more detailed care instructions: clean the zippers daily; wash the tent in a bucket regularly, etc.

Although it should have been a positive day – picking up a refreshed tent which would allow us to continue our journey – we left Hilleberg Redmond slightly dejected. Rather than feeling that we’d received outstanding customer service (which we’ve had when things went wrong from companies such as Showers Pass, Exped and Supernova), we felt more like we’d been lightly scolded for not scrubbing behind our ears. Oh, the shame! While Hilleberg’s customer service was polite, it was also quietly defensive of the Hilleberg tents and refused to acknowledge the zippers failing as being a weakness of their tents. In Hilleberg’s view, the zipper failures were due solely to our lack of care.

We were frustrated that we’d invested in an extremely expensive ‘wilderness shelter’, supposedly designed for ‘expeditions to the most extreme environments’, which appeared to require an unreasonable level of care to maintain its integrity. We were expecting a better response from a company producing such a high-end, high cost product, and were disappointed with Hilleberg’s defensive approach.

But, we were keen to set off on our cycle adventure again. So that is what we did, heading for the San Juan islands off the coast of Seattle, and trying as hard as we could to get the tent’s toothbrush out every morning to clean its zippers thoroughly. A Kaitum 3GT has five zipped entrances, so this was a bit of a faff when you’ve got mats to roll, panniers to pack, bikes to ride and adventures to have. We did get some very odd looks from fellow seasoned campers, who had never seen anyone clean their tent’s zippers before.

Unfortunately, just a month and a half after our visit to Hilleberg, we noticed that the fabric surrounding the rear zipper on the brand-new inner tent had started to fray. The stitching was rather slapdash in that area, and bits of excess fabric had been getting trapped in the zipper. We were in the full swing of touring at that time and so just took a couple of pictures and avoided using the rear entrance.

During the next few months touring in New Zealand we made special efforts to treat the tent with kid gloves and follow Shannon’s care instructions to the letter. The tent got a good old wash in a bucket before we flew Down Under, and a regular – almost daily – tooth-brush of all the zippers on its entrances.

Given what had gone before, we had much less confidence in the tent entrances, and used the zippers as gingerly as possible.

But, despite careful handling and cleaning, the zippers failed again. In November 2012, while camping in Wellington awaiting our ferry to the South Island of New Zealand, the zipper on the outer side door broke again, the teeth gaping open once the slider had been pulled across. It was only the fourth or fifth time we’d used that side door since Hilleberg had replaced the sliders. We took the frustrating decision to keep that door permanently closed.

At the same time, the zipper on the front outer entrance started to fail again. The teeth of the zipper would refuse to close once the slider had passed. It took such effort to keep the thing closed that we eventually gave up and so – for about three months’ camping – we kept the entrance permanently tied back and open to the elements… and to the local wildlife.

I suppose it is testament to the quality and strength of the tent material that, while camping on New Year’s Eve 2012 at the foot of Mount Cook, New Zealand, we managed – just – to withstand a horrendous storm with the entrance with its broken front zipper permanently tied open. That was a scary night, and not something we’d like to experience again.

‘The Hilleberg Principle’

Hilleberg set out three principles upon which they base their ideal tent: “RELIABILITY – your being able to depend on your tent, no matter what; EASE OF USE – being able to pitch it easily, even in high winds, in the dark, alone, and while wearing heavy gloves; COMFORT – its livability, including the obvious, such as fully waterproof outer tents and floors” and “being able to depend on your tent, no matter what’.

It is plain to see that when zippers fail as severely and as frequently as theirs do, the reliability, ease of use and comfort of the tent are severely compromised.

The Hilleberg zipper problem is one that others have suffered. We heard first-hand accounts from other cycle tourers about their zippers failing, often quite early in the tent’s life. Of the five other Hilleberg tents we came across during our travels in North and South America, New Zealand and Australia, three had suffered severe zipper failures. In Tasmania we met Robert and Sabine from Germany, who’d had to fasten the outer entrance of their Nallo 2 with clothes pegs when their zipper failed. They were making a special trip out of their way to have the whole thing replaced. In Patagonia we met Sarah and her husband, also from Germany, who sewed their own tents and backpacks and had constructed a super-duper tent with a bespoke extension using the fabric from their old Hilleberg Nallo. An experienced seamstress, Sarah singled out the Hilleberg zippers for particular criticism, saying they were the weakest tent zippers she’d come across. Also in Patagonia we met Nicolas and his cycle touring family from Switzerland. All four of them were living in their 4-person Hilleberg and their zipper failed after just three months’ use. In fact, as soon as we met other Hilleberg users – mainly very experienced mountaineers and cycle tourers – the conversation turned immediately to the poor quality of the zippers, and how they’d never had such problems with other tents.

Online we came across several other incidents of Hilleberg zipper failure, for example Guy and Frederike of A Bike Journey, Linda’s comments on our blog post, and here on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum.

We are deeply disappointed with the performance of a tent which is marketed as ‘supremely reliable and easy to use in all conditions’ with ‘all-season strength as well as [...] low weight’. It is pretty unreasonable to expect daily cleaning of a tent marketed as ‘supremely reliable and easy to use’, especially when it carries a price tag of almost £1,000.

I absolutely understand that nothing is infallible and that we’ve given the tent some good use, but that is what an expedition tent is designed for. We experienced the first zipper failure after just 60 nights in the tent. Is that speed of failure acceptable?

I hope that Hilleberg will respond to this post by offering to replace all our tent’s zippers at no cost to us. I also strongly urge them to acknowledge that this is a recurring problem which really lets their tents down. They should seriously consider upgrading the zippers on every new tent they make.

Are you a Hilleberg owner who has also had problems with your zippers? Please do leave a comment on this article with details of your experiences. Perhaps together we can persuade Hilleberg to give their zippers the upgrade they clearly need and drastically improve the reliability of their otherwise fabulous tents.

Here’s our Hilleberg history in numbers:

Kaitum 3GT three-man tent: £854.95
Footprint £104.95
Total: £959.90

Bought tent: 20 June 2011
Started cycle tour: 15 January 2012
Sliders and inner tent replaced: 31 August 2012
Ended tour: 2 February 2013

Number of nights camped:
… when side outer zipper started to fail: 60
… when front inner zipper started to fail: 120
… when zipper sliders and inner tent were replaced: 160
… when brand new inner tent zipper fabric started to fray: 40
… when front outer zipper broke completely: 198
… in total between 15 January 2012 and 2 February 2013: 314

The post Review: When Hilleberg zippers fail. And fail again. appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Highlights: Rain, knife making, pancake rocks, limestone arches, lakes and mountains.

Day 333-335 – Dec 3-5 : Meet domestic, the car

We still have a month left to enjoy New Zealand.

Quick story: we rented a car. A slightly longer version: we made our way by bus from Nelson to Christchurch and went out to the area near the airport where there were at least ten rental car companies, with the plan to shop around. We went to the first one and drove away in a station wagon. No faffing.

So, the plan is that I will be Peli’s domestique driving the car while she cycles the best bits and in between we’ll find some day walks to hike.

We got some thinner tyres for Peli’s bike Milly and stored my bike and trailer at the great LBS in Christchurch – Cycletrader.co.nz, to be picked up next year before we fly out to Tasmania. Keith the owner showed us pictures of the old shop after the 2011 earthquake, the whole shop front was gone.

We didn’t spend much time in Christchurch last time we were here, but we could easily see the devastating damage to the city. Block after block was just empty space or rubble. The odd building was left standing, waiting to be pulled down, like part of a ghost town. Or if the building by sheer chance was undamaged it was business as usual, though very odd to see the building standing all alone on a deserted block.

We left Christchurch heading back north towards Abel Tasman National Park, pretty much where we left off. Just past Hanmer Springs on Lewis Pass Peli jumped out to battle the hill and headwind on her bike.

She did mighty well, flying along on thinner tyres, 1.5″ wide compared to 2.2″ and a half a kilo in weight per tyre and much lighter load. I leapfrogged her between parking bays checking if she was OK. I do need a massive cow bell, it is not so fun just shouting “Allez, allez” out of the car window.

I even drove ahead and pitched the tent at a free DoC campsite among a million sandflies. So dinner was eaten in the car, great to have sandwich food available, to avoid being eaten by these little buggers.

In Hanmer Springs I had asked about the weather for the night and next day. The lady at the i-Site said that when it rains here it tends to RAIN here. We soon saw what she meant. While eating the rain started nice and gentle at first but by the time we were ready to crawl into bed it wasn’t rain any more, it was a wall of wet.

Yes, we have moaned about our tent a few times over the last year. But, even with yet another broken zip, keeping us dry is one thing it is great at! The whole night and the morning there wasn’t a minute’s pause in the very heavy rain. We could feel the water under us when we started to pack our very dry sleeping gear, and had to wade around to take the tent down. But no rain ever touched us inside the tent.

Peli bailed out of riding, it wouldn’t have been wise or nice to ride in the heavy rain. I think if we had both been on bikes we’d have holed up in the tent for the day. We drove all the way to Richmond just south of Nelson. Just as we left Richmond the weather changed and the sun came out and the rest of the day turned pleasant. In Appleville (???) Peli jumped on her bike and set off into the hills for a quick hour or so’s pedalling.

20 odd miles later in Motueka we pitched up and let the tent dry in the sun and wind.

Day 336 – Dec 6 : It’s just a hill

“It’s just a hill, get over it!” said the advertisement for the Golden Bay area about Takaka Hill. So Peli did. Just as she was ready to go the rain started too. The first few kilometres were nice and flat and then the famous climb started, 800 or so metres up. Sadly so did the clouds, fog and heavy rain. So she didn’t get to enjoy any views at all as she plodded her way up.

When I passed her the second time she was well and truly wet but had a massive smile on her face. She would rather be on her bike than in the warmth of the car, where I was busy reading and writing emails off-line.

We leapfrogged a few more time on the way up. Every time I just got into my book I got a little tap on the window by a very happy and wet Peli, grinning like an exuberant puppy and almost wagging her tail.

Near the bottom of the descent I found a shivering Peli with her thumb stuck out for a lift. And did I already mention that she was wet? She’d decided to give up given that her hands were so cold she was struggling to use her brakes. Quickly we got her and the bike into the car and she got some warm and dry clothing on. Oh how easy it is to bail out when you have a support car.

We decided to push on all the way to Puponga Beach and Wharariki Beach, since the weather did look like rain for the day. Just past Collingwood the sun came out and we had a great drive to pretty much the end of the road at Wharariki Beach. There, we had a great walk down to the beach and the Arch Island, though because of high tide we couldn’t get to a point where we could really see the arch. Nevertheless it was a very good walk.

Day 337 – Dec 7 : Two beaches

The night was very entertaining, heavy rain for a few minutes, then quiet for a bit, drizzle, thunder and lightning, then quiet again, then massive wind gusts. And repeat in a random order.

As always with weather as soon as you decide to get wet and pack the tent up because the sun will not come out any time soon – it does. We rolled out of the campsite and the sun came out so we decided to do the walk out to Fossil Point where we could see Farewell Spit, the northernmost point on the South Island and a 20km long sandspit. It makes Skagen, the northernmost point in Denmark, look rather small.

While we walked on the beach we saw a few seals enjoying the sun, got dived bombed by a bird when we got too close and sadly also saw a dead dolphin.

Peli then took advantage of the sunshine to jump on the bike and cycle the 14 miles into Collingwood along Golden Bay.

We then drove over to Totaranui via Lina Bay, Clifton etc along a very windy road with beautiful bays and limestone overhangs. The last few km into Totaranui were on a very zigzaggy gravel road and there wasn’t much there other than a great location for a campsite and a stunning beach with bright orange-coloured sand.

Day 338 – Dec 8 : Being tourists

Well we did it, we became real tourists – we got picked up in the early morning and driven to the boat to then walk some of the Abel Tasman National Park. The mini-bus driver told us in true guide style a bit about the area and dropped us off in Kaiteriteri Bay. We then boarded the taxi boat for all the tourists who come to walk the coastal path.

We had booked the one that sailed all the way up the Abel Tasman Park’s coast to Totaranui with stops at nearly all the beautiful bays on the way up. Then we sailed some of the way back to Medlands Bay from where we would walk the coastal path to Anchorage where we would be picked up and taxied back to Kaiteriteri Bay where the shuttle bus would be waiting for us.

The weather was with us so we had blue skies, green forests and orange beaches. It was truly a little bit of paradise. We had been warned that the walk in and near high season would like a motorway. At the start the path was packed but as the trampers spread out it wasn’t that bad. We hiked through dense forest and now and again had views over the bays.

Even at forty two I still build a mean sandcastle, even if I say so myself. If we’d known the sand at Anchorage Bay was so good for sandcastles we’d have brought a bucket and spade! Peli got the hang of it too and even made a unicorn in the sand.

The campsite in Motueka gave us a free dip in the hot tub, so we soaked there for a glorious half hour before dinner and bed.

Day 339-340 – Dec 9-10 : Nelson Lakes

We had booked me in to a course on the 11th on the west coast and therefore had to make up some miles. Which fitted well for a rest day for Peli, she might not have done many miles but she had done them fast and up the biggest hills we could find.

Driving the Motueka Valley Highway took us south towards St Arnaud and Lake Rotoiti where we had a short walk. This road would have been a great road to cycle tour on with rolling hills, swooping valley roads and tailwinds. We also had great weather so we could seen the mountains and farmland around us. There was hardly any traffic, either. We’ll stick it on the list for the next time we’re here.

Back in the day they tried to make a train line from Nelson to Greymouth but only managed to get to Murchison. Apparently they were only 48km away from making a train line all the way from Nelson to Invercargill in the south, before they stopped the project. We slept at one of the old railway stations: Kawatiri Junction.

It was a simple DoC campground and it was free, and we later found out why – bucketloads of sandflies! Our flysheet was nearly black with them (the picture was taken before more arrived) and it sounded it was raining as they flew around our tent looking for something to put their teeth into. This made getting out and having a nature call in the middle of the night very hard work.

We beat a tactical retreat in the morning, out of our tent, packed the tent down as fast as we could and jumped into the car and drove away. If you keep moving the sandflies can’t land on you and therefore can’t bite you.

Breakfast was had in Murchison but the car was so full of the BBs (Biting Bastards) that we had to in a rather comical fashion, walking around it. And the next few miles Peli’s job was to kill the ones that still enjoyed our little drive even with the windows down.

We found a great little campsite north of Greymouth and south of Barrytown right on the beach. This beach is known for its gemstones, though we didn’t know what to look for but we did find some beautiful stones, especially the white nearly see-through ones, a bit like a snowballs.

Peli even found the time to have a little spin up and down them coast, so she is still cycle touring in spirit.

Day 341 – Dec 11 : This is a knife

While looking at the many tourist information leaflets in a random location, I found one advertising a knifemaking course where you’d make your own hand-forged knife from a red hot piece of steel. Now still being a little boy, remembering my Scout days with fondness and loving the look of a good a knife, this was a treat that I could not turn down. Peli spotted this right away and even before I asked she said, “You’d better call and book”.

Nine others were there at 9:30am and we were greeted by Steven and Robyn who, in their words, would be our mummies and daddies while we are in New Zealand. After a brief safety talk we pretty much got thrown into the deep end, a quick show and tell and on you went.

Steel into forge, hammer the life out it while it was red hot, repeat a few times. Then light sanding down, made a rough cut for a handle out of Rimu hardwood, rivet brass and wood onto knife shaped steel. Start to sand down steel and wood to snap of the knife shape you wanted, remember it is easy to remove shape but darn hard to add shape. Then polish and tan the wood and then Steven made it very sharp for you. And then voila! You had your very own knife, which you’d made all by yourself.

I was very split on what the final shape of mine should be and spent much time thinking this over. I ended up doing a drastic shape change at the last minute and I’m very happy with the end result.

If you want to amaze yourself you need to spend a day in Barrytown making your very own knife. One lady said, “Steven, if you had told me that I would walk away with something this beautiful that I had made myself I wouldn’t have believed you”. You can read more about my day making a knife here and there are plenty of photos too.

A few km north are the famous Pancake rocks, about whose origins the scientists still argue. The sea has been pounding the coastline for ages and has created the blowholes. Sadly the tide was out when we were there so we didn’t get to see the full force of the sea spurting through the blowholes. But we could hear the waves hammering the rocks again and again with a big deep thud which we could even feel in some places.

Day 342 – Dec 12 : West coast road

Peli donned her cycling gear and set off onto the highway north of Punakaiki which the Rough Guide tells us is one of the top ten best road trips in the world. I sat back and read my book before I set off after her. Though I couldn’t make up much time because the road was so winding, and of course the stunning views over the sea, beaches and rock formations. I would have loved to have been on my bike with Peli on this bit of road.

60km later we were in Westport where we put the bike back into the car, went shopping and refuelled the car. But not before I poked my nose into the West Coast Brewery and had a good chat with the staff and a taster of their Darn Good IPA, which it was.

We drove all the way to Karamea, the last village before the end of the road and the Kahurangi National Park. We pitched our tent at the domain camping and had a good chat about camping, camper vans and cycling over a cup of tea and biscuits with fellow campers. 

Day 343 – Dec 13 : Arches

The Oparara Basin has two massive limestone arches well hidden in the forest. How they found these and the many gold mines in these parts I still can’t really fathom. It seems so utterly remote to us at the end of the highway and 14km along a rough gravel road right into the bush. But that is now. Imagine how it was over a hundred years ago.

We had two walks there, one to the Oparara Arch which spans over 200 metres and the other to the Moria Gate Arch. The latter is named after the Lord of the Rings before the films were even made there.

At the car park we spoke to two French tourers who had battled along the gravel road to make it there, which made us rather jealous.

We then drove back down the coast past Karamea and Westport and camped at the pebble beach campsite just north of Greymouth.

Day 344 – Dec 14 : Glaciers

The further down the West Coast we ventured, the more it lived up to its nickname ‘The Wet Coast’. Clouds pulled in and the rain started.

We stopped at the Franz Josef Glacier which we’d missed the last time we visited New Zealand. We had a quick walk out to see it, but turned around quickly when we realised it wasn’t as stunning a sight as others we’ve seen on our tour. The clear ones we saw and heard near Mount Cook last time here and the ones we saw in South America were rather more impressive. It’s very sad to think that all of them have receded so much in so little time. The car park at Franz Josef is pretty much where it was when westerners first spotted the glacier and now you have a long walk up to it.

We arrived at the Haast Top10 campsite in curtains of rain. “You want to camp in this?” the host exclaimed, incredulous. We saw the weather forecast for tomorrow, 21c and sun it said. And we crawled into bed to the sound of heavy rain drumming on the fly. When it rains here it is a kind of double rain. First you have the misty/drizzly rain that you can hear the wind is blowing against the tent. Then you have the heavy droplets of rain drumming on top. It’s like the rain is just making sure that you will get wet.

Day 345 – Dec 15 : A pass on Haast

Peli felt that I needed company in the support car today and so gave Haast Pass a miss. In other words, the wall of wet was still making stuff very wet and the sun wasn’t about to come out at all.

We felt a bit gutted when we saw a tandem coming down Haast. Peli tried to put on a brave face when we passed three tourers going up Haast and she was pretty much cowering below the seat when we passed the last very wet looking touring couple. She tried to convince herself that one big hill in New Zealand in heavy rain is enough per visit.

On the other side of Haast Pass we stopped at the cafe in Makarora, just like last time we were here, and jumped on our bikes. Well Peli did. I relaxed a bit while she zoomed along what she has dubbed her favourite stretch of road in New Zealand and broke her speed record too, the tailwind and downhill helping a bit.

Day 346 – Dec 16 : Glenorchy Cycle Race

We left Albertown where we’d camped at the council-run site near the river and drove to Queenstown via Wanaka to stock up on food and get Peli ready to cycle to Glenorchy. She was a wee bit shy since she was sharing the road with a road race, luckily they were going the other way and on the last leg of the race.

I followed behind and was official photographer with many stops since it is rather stunning here. This part the car didn’t like, more about this in a bit.

The road to Glenorchy is narrow, hilly and runs right next to Lake Wakatipu which funnels the wind into a nice strong headwind for Peli. I had to double back and warn our lone rider after I struggled to open the door at one viewpoint. The car was also rocking in the wind. Peli decided after two hours to call it a day since she wasn’t making any headway.

Our old rental banger has been running fine the last two weeks, though it’s slow up the hills. Today’s numerous stops en route to Glenorchy somehow drained the battery and it wouldn’t start at all when trying to start after we loaded the bike into the car. Luckily a friendly local came by and she and Peli managed to push-start the car. In the late nineties we would have shrieked, “Girl Power!”.

We continued past Glenorchy and drove to the DoC at Kinloch on the other side of the Dart River. Here we were treated to an incredible fire in the sky when the sun began to set at nearly quarter to ten. The clouds lit up in fantastic golden colours in different layers too. Yes, it is very weird to see daylight to well past ten at night (and hear talk on the radio about Christmas in the same breath as barbeques and beaches).

Day 347 – Dec 17 : The magic number

I know that three is the magic number and less fat in your diet is good for you. But why the heck is 97% the right amount to be fat free? Milk, chocolate, ham, you name it, it’s impossible to get with a little “flavour” in it, everything seems to be 97% fat free.

Anyway, enough from our health advisers, other than to say that my hands and arms are much better. Though I still struggle with them at night since I tend to sleep on my side which my shoulder and arms are not happy about. The vibration from the gear shifter – remember it is an old car we are renting – gives my wrist and fingers buzz for a long time after I have shifted gear. I need to change that habit learnt driving years ago when it was comfy to rest my hand on the gear stick.

The rain started yesterday evening and was solid throughout the night and well into the morning. We checked the weather in Glenorchy and were told today is an duvet day. So we pitched up camp at the local campsite where cups of tea and biscuits were consumed while reading crappy magazines. Peli even managed to watch some Emmerdale.

Day 348 – Dec 18 : Routeburn Track

We are rather confused about what to do now. Today we had an excellent walk up the Glenorchy end of the Routeburn Track to the Routeburn Flat Hut on one of the DoC New Zealand Great Walks. The sun came out as we walked up the valley and revealed stunning views over craggy, snowy mountains. The gear we have is OK to potter about in at the campsite, airport or on short city walk but not remote mountain tracks.

I have nothing bar a few simple things and Peli has all the hiking/tramping gear back in the UK. Getting a basic pack sent out here this close to Christmas and our departure is going to be expensive and would not arrive in time for us to have much use of it.

Renting gear here might be the answer, but the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes doesn’t fill us with joy. Especially when hiking in mountains for a few days with everything on our back.

So we are probably stuck to short walks on the Great Walk trails, even though a few days’ hike up in the mountains in the wilderness sounds fantastic.

You are only one click away from many more photos and another click away from even more photos.

The post Blog: Meet Domestique appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Highlights: Ferry, warmshowers, mountain biking the Queen Charlotte Track, bays, stunning views, broken hands.

Day 321-324 – November 21-24 : Ferry to the South Island

After two days rest up north we took the bus to Wellington, we had heard from other cycle tourers that the last bit into the capital wasn’t the most enjoyable to ride. It was also clear that I needed more time of the bike. So I time in Wellington was spend going around bicycle shops figuring out options for me. This wasn’t too bad since we are not so keen on walking around a big town looking at churches, queuing at museums and window shopping.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton we had booked departed at 8:15am, which meant a 5am wake-up call to give time to pack up and ride to the ferry terminal for a wonderful check-in time of 7:30am. We found a cycle lane that ran between the highway into Wellington and the train line. We didn’t see that as we’d cycled out to the campsite, it could have made a more enjoyable ride for sure.

We had great weather and Peli even commented that she is getting better at sailing. She hasn’t been seasick on our last few crossings. (Though my idea of getting a boat and sailing the seven seas got shot down before I finished the sentence…)

When sailing into the fjords and sounds of the South Island as you cruise into Picton harbour, you get spoiled with some beautiful sights.

We disembarked and cycled the long 1.5km to our warmshowers hosts to a great welcome and tea.

Next job was to try to fettle the difficulties I have been experiencing with my painful hands. We ordered butterfly handlebars from the bicycle shop in Christchurch to be send to our hosts in Picton in a few days. While we waited for our delivery we decided to give cycling the Queen Charlotte Track a go, which runs from Ship Cove, where Capt Cook had his base while exploring the South Island and fixed the his ship the Endeavour, to nearly all the way back to Picton.

Day 325 – November 25 : Queen Charlotte Track

We took a small water taxi come mail boat out to Ship Cove. This service ships out hikers/trampers to the track, guests to the various B&Bs along the way and also delivers the mail to the locals who live in the many remote bays, only accessible by boat or a long walk.

It was amazing to see the track from the sea. We disembarked at Ship Cove which is a stunning piece of nowhere, looked at the statue and read about the history of this place. While snacking up before setting off Peli got stung on her inside lower arm by a bumble bee. Her response was something along the lines of: “BEEP! That BEEPING hurt! BEEP, ouch, BEEP off BEEPING BEEPING thing!” I censored a little here just to keep the wonderful Peli ladylike, but you get the gist. You should have seen how big the bite area on her arm grew over the next few days – a full-on reaction to the sting. And Sod’s Law dictated that antihistamine was the one medication lacking in our huge mountain leader first aid kit.

We first heard about this track in Wellington and the brochures described it as suitable for any level of hikers/trampers and easily rideable on a mountain bike. The more we heard about it, the more we were sure that it would be doable on fully-loaded touring bikes, though we’d been warned that the first climb out of Ship Cove was very steep.

One thing we have learnt in New Zealand is that people in general have a different level of abilities. For example, when a walk is described as easy you might find that it’s actually more like ‘intermediate’. They do love their outdoors activities down here so they have grown up with it much more than people from elsewhere. There were some parts of the Queen Charlotte Track that I know a few people who be hard pushed to complete because of the surface, so I wouldn’t call it a track that ‘hikers at any level’ could do.

We set off from Ship Cove with Peli’s bitten arm inflating by the minute. The first 200m climb was directly up a very steep, very rough track with roots and large loose stones. Peli did question whose idea this was a couple of times as we swore, sweated and dragged our bikes up the hill. (Honestly, I’m very sure that the whole thing was actually Peli’s idea.)

We just needed a French tandem, a Swiss family, a Portuguese chap and heavy rain and we would be back doing the O’Higgins crossing between Chile and Argentina.

And now a word from our sponsors! Find yourself on a steep, rough track with a heavy touring bike, struggling to make progress? Look no further! Call upon your fully-automated Peli’o'matic! The Peli’o'matic will turn your two-wheel drive bicycle into a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle, in a flash! All you need to say is: “I need a bit of a hand please, love”. And up you go with Peli pushing, no matter how steep or rough the terrain.

I was joking that she was my personal pusher.

Even the downhills were rather hard to cycle, very steep, rocky and plenty of tree roots on the track, so we ended up pushing a fair bit.

At every bend, hill top and clearing we were treated to what Peli called glorious views over the various coves, bays and islands. It’s a truly magnificent bit of the world here. We were told that in one bay there were around 80 houses but you would be hard pushed to spot ten hidden in the dense forest. It was beautiful, remote and wild – just our cup of tea. And we easily forgot the sweat and swearing.

We even managed to overtake two hiking couples who were on the boat with us out to Ship Cove, this made us feel better.

We arrived in Endeavour Inlet rather spent and tired and still had 11km to the DoC campground at Camp Bay. We tried to push on but a kilometre down the track we came upon the Madsen Camp. It was already past six pm and given the state of the track it was doubtful we’d make it before dark. So we pitched up on one of the terraces overlooking the inlet and learnt that the owner, Tony Madsen, had Danish ancestry – his grandfather came over from Denmark a few moons ago. The campsite was lovely and had the poshest and cleanest long drop loo we’ve ever seen!

Day 326 – November 26 : Back on the road

The next morning we were well and truly beat after putting our bodies through the mill. We ached in areas we didn’t know could hurt. The main reason for the slow start, however, was the fantastic view from our little terrace at Madsen Camp. It must be tough to live in such a place. How does one bear such a view every morning?

The next 10km was on an easy surface compared to yesterday and we made good time. Enjoying the view isn’t like normal cycle touring on roads, where you can just look around and take it all in. Here you really had to be on the ball as you were flying down the single track, over rocks and stones, you couldn’t just turn your head and exclaim at the beauty of it all, as you’d fly off the track and exclaim in an entirely different manner. So we had many stops to take in the views.

As we filtered some water at the Camp Bay DoC Campground we found a brochure we’d not seen before. Let’s just say that if I’d read this one at the start, we wouldn’t be tackling the track fully-loaded! It was clear that yesterday’s first section was an ‘advanced’ mountain biking track and the last 10km was at the easier grade of ‘intermediate’. And it also warned us that if you are not a skilled mountain biker it would be advised to either walk the next section or take the road.

So we pushed up the next steep, hot 200m climb, this time a little easier since we could do it without help from each other, though with many stops to put our lungs into their rightful places. And then we rolled down on the other side to take the gravel road. It felt a bit like giving up at first, but we both knew that we didn’t have enough food or energy to make it to the next camp along along the track and it would also make it into a four day trek if we did.

We arrived at Cowshed campsite, a DoC just outside Portage, cooked up and crawled into bed rather tired.

Day 327 – November 27 : School trip

Our alarm clock went off at 5am, not that we had anything planned, just because a whole forest full of birds thought it would be a good time to have a sing song. Boy, can they sing. It sounded like an orchestra, we had the strings to the left, rhythm section to the right and so many variations of bird song all around us.

We had a decision to make: climb 400m rather directly up an advanced level MTB route, or cycle 7km around the bay to a more gentle climb and only 200m up, we took the latter. So we joined the Queen Charlotte Track at Mistletoe Bay for the last 12km on a wonderful track that is more cycle-touring friendly.

A few km in we picked up the Therma Tech Outdoor School group, who we’d been leapfrogging since we got off the boat to Ship Cove. Nine kids age 14-15 and two instructors on a three-day trip mountain biking. They were having their lunch and had cycled the whole track. We were rather glad to hear that some of the young lads with super-light bikes had pushed up some of the hill we’d dragged our bikes up. And they had found the middle section a bit hard too, so we didn’t feel too bad about taking a detour.

A few more km down the track we found a backpack at one of the view points. We checked it over and found a camera loaded with pictures of the lads. So Peli, never scared of wee bit of extra load, strapped the backpack to her bike and set off after the lads.

This 12km bit was nice singletrack with more great views of beautiful bays than you can shake a stick at. It was well good fun to ride along, and we’re already looking into getting mountain bikes when we get back so that we can do some singletrack riding. Plenty of bumps, twists and turns and steep bits that I nearly tried to cycle down. I’m even more appreciative of my excellent brakes.

And now a public safety announcement: slip, slap and slop. The sun is a killer down here so cover up, wear a hat and use suncream, the strongest you can get, and reapply often.

Though don’t use Nivea on two counts. Firstly: it is hard to rub in (see second point), you look like a ghost for a while, it smells (see second point) and your body exudes the suncream when you sweat, a thing that you often do while cycle touring. Then you end up a layer of sweat and a white layer of suncream that is ever so sticky that anything will stick to it from bugs to dust and everything you touch will be covered in Nivea. Yuck.

Secondly: it rendered this user into a shaking wreck, reliving nightmares of bygone years. Haunting flashes of trips to the beach when a wee boy, just from the smell.

I’ll set the scene for you: let your memory go back a little, OK over 35 years back, to a hot summers day at a great beach in northern Denmark, with wall to wall sunshine. You spot a little woollypigs, yep that is me you see there, without the beard and in the nuddy, running around in the dunes, diving in and out of the waves having a whale of a time. Then you hear a concerned mum call out to the wee lad, “Get here you little bugger, it’s time for the suncream again. You’ve washed the last lot off in the water!” This is where the nightmare starts. Not that that my mum was calling me, but the very distinctive smell of Nivea and that my soft and tender skin was about to be rubbed hard all over with what felt like a whole beach-worth of sand. Back then you had to reapply every time you went in the drink, which was often for a little woollypigs. And now repeat for each summer in the 70s and early 80s. 1976 was a bad year too, blistering hot, Europe-wide heatwave and a second degree burn on one’s derriere, but I digress, that is another story and nightmare.

We arrived at Anakiwa where we found the school party resting and paddling in the water. Except for one sheepish-looking lad who was very happy to see his bag again. Oh, there was also an ice cream parlour and it would have been rude not to put in an order. As we placed it one of the teachers came up and said it would be coming out of the young lad’s pocket, as a thank you for our bag delivery service.

We got a water taxi with the school group back to town which would save us around 30km riding. Arriving back to our friendly warmshowers hosts we were again invited to make ourselves at home.

The handlebars we had ordered from http://www.cycletrading.co.nz in Christchurch had arrived. Along with a message that – rather wonderfully – one of the bike shop’s staff recognised us from a cycling forum we frequent. So, tea and cake is now booked in Christchurch before we fly to Tasmania, Australia.

Day 328 – November 28 : Middle earth

Not a day has gone by since we arrived in New Zealand that we haven’t been reminded that film version of The Hobbit is about to be released. Posters, TV and a massive Hobbit outside a cinema with a big sign saying “6 days to go” greeted us in Wellington.

Even today’s weather forecast on the telly wasn’t spared along with live broadcast and news reading delivered right next to the red carpet. A bit weird to see the news being read to you… “Today, Mr Arafat’s body will be exhumed…” while the news presenters are dressed as if they’re off to a fancy dress party with hundreds of screaming people in the back ground. Very odd.

I fitted the new butterfly bars and we cycled the massive distance of 1km to the Picton Top10 campsite, where we enjoyed more fettling, cleaning of the bikes and some resting in the sun.

Day 329-332 – Nov 29 – Dec 2 : What the future holds

Sometimes we have been pondering if we should change the title of this tour from “The world cake pootle” to “How many ailments can cycle tourers endure before changing one’s plans?”

It’s clear now that my arms and shoulders need a much longer rest, or even surgery. Even after taking anti-inflammatory drugs, fitting new handle bars and changing my position very often my symptoms are unfortunately getting worse.

So yet again we are re-planning our tour. We will push on into Nelson and try to weigh up our options.

Our ride today from Picton to Havelock was on a nice rolling and zigzagging road along the bay with great views. The next day we had the option to push on through to Nelson, a 71km ride, or do two short days with a wild camp in the middle. It ended up being a 77km ride, probably not the best option for my ailments, but the idea was to get it over with and then rest, instead of dragging it out over two days.

While writing this we are now pitched up in Nelson pondering our options: pack it all in and fly back to Blighty to get mended? Rent a car as a support vehicle for Peli and do some walking? Find a nice spot in NZ and hang around until the 10th of Jan when we will fly out to Tasmania (tickets already booked). Or… ?

The post Blog: Queen Charlotte Track and a painful dilemma appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Hot Water Beach, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, National Park, Pipiriki, Wanganui – 414km (Total 6895km cycled)

Highlights: Active volcanoes, ice cream, wonderful hospitality, hot mineral pools, rainforests.

Day 309 – November 9 : Bus ride from hell

We had booked a bus to Tauranga to gain a few days and bypass a narrow and busy stretch, which had the nickname “The Suicide Highway”. A wise move, we thought.

The first bus arrived on time and the driver was helpful, nice and drove very sensibly. We changed buses in Thames and the new driver was a nightmare – swore at us, was unhelpful when one of our bags went missing (“I don’t care about your bag! I’ve a bus full of pissed off people and you’re pissing me off with your missing bag!” etc) and drove like a complete idiot. Yet another reason why we didn’t want to do this bit…

But after seven kilometres ride from the bus station in Tauranga peace was restored. We were in the beautiful home of John, Sylvia and Heather, the brother and family of Penny and Paul, two lovely Kiwis we’d met when we visited the South Island in 2010. We enjoyed a delicious meal and chatted away happily with our hosts.

Day 310 – November 10 :  Extra day off

We were taken care of so well that we decided to extend our stay by another day. We filled this with cycle touring admin, a visit to a local bike shop to buy new gloves for me and a mirro for Peli (hers had come a cropper in the Nightmare Bus Journey of 9 November). And, on our hosts’ excellent recommendation, we did a fantastic short walk up the local hill, Mount Maunganui, which gave us fabulous panoramic views over the local bays and beaches.

While in Hedgehog Bicycles shop in Tauranga we were shown something called Bzzzkill Dampers from Bontrager which from the online blurb and the mechanic’s spiel should neutralise the vibrations in your handlebars and stop numbness and tingling in your fingers. We were offered a tempting 10% off everything so decided to give them a go: let’s hope they work for my painful hands.

We then walked up the little Mount Maunganui which sits at the entrance to the bay and Tauranga harbour, which has a 360 degree view over the bay, town and harbour from 230 metres. It is amazing that this bay suffered a devastating oil disaster a couple of years ago, when a container ship ran aground and spilled its cargo and fuel. They have cleaned it up fantastically well and there is no trace to be seen, though we hear that there is still oil just below the surface of the sand.

An added bonus when we got back down to sea level – with slightly shaky legs (we’re still not used to this walking malarky) – was the fantastic ice cream parlour, Copenhagen Waffles, at the base of the mountain. Well worth the long wait in the queue. Though, in true seaside fashion, Peli managed to drop her last bit into the sand as we walked along the beach.

Day 311 – November 11 :  Smelly Town

We bid our farewells to our wonderful hosts and set off to climb a 16km long hill through farmland and orchards. Nothing bad on the downhill into Rotorua other than two deep gorges that we had to dip into and climb up out of to continue the downhill.

All the guide books we have read and the people we have talked to about Rotorua prepared us for the stink. We weren’t bothered by it, though, and only had the odd whiff of sulphur as we pitched our tent in a Top10 with a hot mineral pool, where we had a nice little dip (not too long this time).

The shower at this campsite was pretty good for Peli, which isn’t the norm. Over the last ten months we have tried our fair share of shower blocks in various countries. And I can tell you that either Peli is very picky or unlucky as she reports back at least eight times out of 10 that her shower was crap. Not hot enough, too hot, no beam, dirty… you name it. Whereas I can report that I nearly always have a good old wash, with plenty of warm water.

Day 312 – November 12 : Leaving Rotorua 

That part where we told you that Rotorua didn’t smell is a lie. As we did our shopping and last check at the i-Site the smell of sulphur did get to us. Poohey! I think this place does enjoy windy days!

Some day New Zealand will be covered in brilliant cycle trails as part of the National Cycle Trail Network which received funding in 2009: mainly off road in beautiful remote locations. But they’re not quite there yet, right now you have to accept short bits here and there. Today, for example, we had a 20km ride on a concrete-surfaced cycle trail alongside the busy SH5 that ended up going through a sheep farm.

If you try to find information online about the various cycle trails you will be sent around in circles on nzcycletrail.com, doc.govt.nz and the local i-Sites. They link to each other, other sites and .pdfs which tell you to go back to the site you just came from. It’s all rather confusing.

Although the i-Site will call around to check which parts are open for you, and the DoC will answer your emails, it’s a little frustrating to try to plan your onward journey with limited information. But, when all these cycle routes are complete you will be spoiled for choice with rides through this stunning country.

We didn’t get very far today as shopping and information gathering made it a late start. Last time we enjoyed a dip in a hot spring the next day we were slow and weak. Today, a day after a soak in a hot tub, I was weak and knew that there weren’t many miles in my legs. Peli on the other hand was on good form. That is, until we sat down for dinner, then she faded fast, though she kept awake long enough to enjoy a Doctor Who, which was rather hard to hear through the drumming of the rain on the tent.

Day 313 – November 13 : Headwinds

Pedallers’ Paradise said that we could get off SH5 and avoid the hills and the traffic. The campsite owners also said it would be a good option taking the back road to Lake Taupo. After a slight detour when James our GPS had us almost gatecrashing a Mauri funeral, oops, we got back on track on a road running parallel to the SH5.

The guidebook was correct that this alternative road wasn’t as hilly, but the wind had freedom to roam and there unfortunately wasn’t much room for the many logging trucks which thundered past us. (I’ve used that description before, as logging trucks don’t seem to do anything BUT thunder past.) We had our fair share of close passing, which made us wonder whether we should have stayed on SH5 with its wider shoulders.

Often, as we ride along, I’m in front and Peli is drafting

cycling behind me, so that she can have a clear view in her mirror. So, she often shouts out what is coming from behind, to warn me. This has turned into a great game for me: “Guess what vehicle is coming from the noise it makes and from what Peli’s shouted out”. Sadly she is getting  better at identifying the overtaking traffic which has made my little game quite boring. No more the shock/surprise when I hear her shout, “MOTORBIKE!” and 100 tons of wood comes flying past on a massive lorry. Or even the other way around. :-)

We had late lunch in Taupo and made the decision that we would plod on for an other 12km to a motor camp further south. Though upon arriving we found out that Pedallers’ Paradise was somewhat wrong: yes there is a motor camp but they haven’t offered tent sites for eight years due to the terrible local winds and weather which was almost blowing campers into the lake. The owner warned us about the weather and roads ahead before taking pity on two weary, dishevelled cyclists, and giving us an offer on a cabin for the night that we couldn’t refuse.

Day 314 – November 14 : Live volcano!

We set off reasonably early for us – quicker as we had no tent to take down – and headed into the blustery wind alongside the grey and choppy waters Lake Taupo. The hill wasn’t that bad after a night’s rest, I don’t think that we would have had it in our legs yesterday.

Bar the strong wind and the traffic it was a good ride for the next 35km into Turangi, where we stocked up on goodies and checked the road ahead at the i-Site. We chose the less hilly route up and around the volcanoes. If we’d taken the direct route, we would have had a massive steep climb into the wind and missed out on views of the active Mount Tongariro.

The clouds cleared enough away for us to clearly see the steam coming out of the crater. Mt. Tongariro took the scientists by surprise a few weeks ago and blew up, not much, but enough to get the clever people to scratch their heads.

When we stood at the reception at the campsite – a most welcome sight after over forty hard miles – our legs were trembling, not from the volcanic eruptions, but from two hard days’ riding into the wind.

Day 315 – November 15 : Hiding from the rain

We had made our mind up last night, we needed a short day-come-rest day today. So we just did 20km down to the nearest DoC campsite and hid from the incessant rain.

We have told you about the dawn chorus but not about the nocturnal bird life. My word, are they loud and scary! There’s the Morpork, which sounds like it is saying “MorePork”, a bit like an owl and nothing too bad. Then there is the Kiwi, whose “song” is more like a scream out of a horror movie! It will keep you awake the first few times you hear it.
  
While cooking up at the little shelter-come-kitchen we got chatting to the other campers there. The group from Israel, which wasn’t as rowdy as other groups of Israelis we’ve met, produced his recorder and started to play a song from each country represented in the camp shelter. The UK was easy (Oasis’s Wonderwall), Germany and Holland were a bit harder but I managed to find one song from Denmark that we all knew: yes, Barbie Girl by Auqa. It’s quite shocking to think that I had to sink so low.

Day 316 – November 16 : Who

We should have had a pretty easy ride to the remote village of Pipiriki on the Whanganui River, 65km downhill, from over 900m to 70m above sea level. The morning started out as wet as yesterday so it took us a while to get going, but as we rolled out late from the campsite it cleared up.

The first 30km went pretty well and we made good time even after a late start. In Raehiti we had lunch outside the old train station which closed in 1968, and by the look of it the rest of town did the same. There was a camera shop where the youngest camera on display was from the mid seventies.

In Pedallers’ Paradise promised us a bit of a “Wheeee!” downhill for the next 27km, but it all went a bit wibbly-wobbly-uppy-downy. If we followed the graph in the book the right way, e.g. up to down, we were sure we wouldn’t have as much UP compared to the amount of DOWN as we ended up with. If you see what I mean.

(Don’t worry, the good Doctor will soon be around in his blue box to tell us that it’s not so good for our space-time-continuum to squeeze in six years’ worth of Doctor Who episodes into 10 month, as it might reverse the polarities of the jelly babies in our neutron flow, and have us writing rubbish on the internet!) 

But one question. Got any jammy dodgers?

Day 317 – November 17 : Cycling – not singing – in the rain

It was dry during the night but along with the dawn chorus the rain woke us up. We packed and got ready in the rain, which meant that we were soaked before we even took off.

We were soon on gravel roads which reminded us of a place we have been before. Lots of rain, the only tarmac to be found on bridges, and trees straight out of a rainforest. Hmmm… could the Doctor have secretly transported us back to Chile and the Carretera Austral?!

The Whanganui River Road is also part of the Mountain to Sea cycle trail, which we could have joined further up the river but that needs to be timed with a JetBoat to come and collect you near the Bridge to Nowhere.

So, we started on the trail at Pipiriki. The first two km was tarmac then we had 10-15 km of gravel. A piece of advice: if you found this bit hard your next cycle tour should not be Patagonia or anywhere near the Carretera Austral!

We kept looking out for tracks and little notes promising chocolate written in the sand from Le Tandem, like the old days in Chile, but saw none. Sob.

Along the River Road there are small settlements named after famous cities in the world, like Jerusalem where we visited the beautiful restored church with a Maori altar. And we even found our former home town, London, aka Ranana.

After nearly 40km, and sopping wet to the bone, we found a simple free campsite, managed by the DoC, by the side of the road with the basics. Water and a long drop loo. Just the ticket.

Hot chocolate warmed us up while we dried ourselves in the tent, again another reason why we carry a nice big tent. But of course, weather being weather, guess what happened when we were dry and warm again? Yes, the sun came out. And Peli got her recorder out for a bit and treated me and the wildlife to a rendition of “Here Comes the Sun”.

Day 318-321 – November 18-21 : Wet and rest

I don’t think we been this wet since South America. We had solid showers all morning. Just as we started think we were drying out, more water arrived from on high.

Farm animals are funny: cows will keep a close eye on you, maybe take some tentative steps back or even treat you to a stampede. Horses will stare at you, even come closer to get a better look or even better run along with you as you ride past, a very joyful sight. But sheep will run to the hills before you even have time to shout “Mint sauce!”, yet they they will happily stand right next to the busiest of roads with cars zooming past just inches away. 

Yes, such are the ponderings of the full-time cycle tourer.

The Whanganui River valley is hidden behind a nearly 200m climb, it was a bit like a movie about a lost world. One side – remote, rainforest and very few people living their lives a few years behind everyone else. The other side had the busy highway and a strong headwind that blow dried us nicely as we headed towards Wanganui town.

Once in Wanganui we booked a bus to Wellington in two days’ time, shopped and headed for the campsite and the showers.

We will have a couple of rest days in Wanganui, hopefully that will sort my sore arms out and give us time to figure out where we will go on the South Island.

Click here to see more photos from the centre of the North Island.

The post Blog: New Zealand, North Island : Onwards through the centre appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Auckland, Thames, Coromandel, Whitianga, Cathedral Cove, Hot Water Beach – 362km (Total 6481km cycled)

Highlights : Wild camping in Auckland, tailwinds, stunning views, new friends, hot water beaches and getting reacquainted with ripio!

Day 309 – October 31 : Leaving Auckland again

We got the bus at eight and pretty much backtracked the route we’d taken up to Kaitaia over the last few days. In Auckland we went via the university where – thanks to the kindness of many friends, and friends of friends – we managed to collect a supply of Peli’s asthma drugs to last her the next three months.

Then we joined the 50km long Tamaki Drive Cycle Path out of Auckland which snaked its way along the bays to the east of the city. The first part will for sure be packed with pedestrians and cyclists on a summer weekend. The path gave excellent views over the CBD (central business district, as they call town centres down here). We had a few hills to climb as we got out of town but spotted plenty of places to do a bit of wild camping in the many parks along the water and bays.

After a little stake-out we found a bench and a bit of flat grass on a coastal promontory out of the wind and cooked up bean chilli and couscous while the dog walkers did their evening constitutionals.

Day 310 – November 1 : Rolling farmland

Wild camping definitely helps you get up bright and early. We were woken by the dog walkers and rowers out in the bay at 6am, not our normal rise and shine time.

We completed our morning faff and breakfast and were ready to hit the road by 8am, shocking.

We experienced a little of the morning Auckland suburb rush hour before the roads turned into rolling farmland.

The morning clouds gave way to blue skies with a light wind as we came over the last high hill out of Auckland. We had our lunch stop at the 20km mark, which today was at just past 11am, rather confusing for us since it is normally well after one in the afternoon. We now know how cockerels feel when they start cockadoodledooing at the wrong time of day.

Pedallers’ Paradise said it would be flat from Clavadale to past Kawakawa but it was more like rolling hills.  We’d descended into the very nice Kawakawa Bay and were steaming along quickly alongside the long sandy beach when Peli deployed the “I” word (ice cream?) and we screeched to a halt outside the local Dairy (corner shop) for a TipTop (ice cream) moment.

Fuelled by ice cream we made easy work of the steep climb up and over the last hill of the day and rolled in to Orere Point where we found a Top 10 Campground and a much needed shower. Peli even had a quick swim in the local river’s swimming hole.

Day 311 – November 2 : Long day

Ah, the joy of campsites. We got to sleep in for once (or rather Peli woke up a little after six as usual and was ready to go). But I would have none of that so I forced her to sleep in for an hour and a bit more.

Again the weather started off grey but nearer to lunchtime the sun came out. The wind also woke up, though this time we had tailwind for nearly 40 flat kilometres, sometimes this cycle touring is really hard work. We knew we would pay for it later in the day and tomorrow, however, since we’re going north on the other side of the Firth of Thames to explore the Coromandel Peninsula.

Over the last few weeks my hands have gone numb very fast, a couple of kilometres and the tinkling starts. I’m very sure that I set the bike up correctly after the flight as I’ve got little markers on the frame and components. It gets that bad that much of the day I’m riding one-handed to get some blood back into my fingers. But today the numbness had turned borderline painful and I could feel it all the way up my right arm to the elbow. No matter how much I fettled with the handlebar grips and moved my hands around I got no relief, it was either the same or worse. We think that it can be my gloves that are past their best, so at the next bike shop we’ll get some new mitts for me.

As we turned unto SH25 we also turned into the wind and after 10km in Pipiroa we spotted a roadside cafe/kitchen and dived in to celebrate having passed the 700km mark in New Zealand with tea and truly wonderful posh cake, rhubarb crumble for me and lemon slice for Peli.

In Kope we turned right into the wind and onto the Coromandel Peninsula for the last five kilometres into the rather nondescript town of Thames. On the outskirts of town we were overtaken by a fella from Belgium and a fella from Germany. We all ended up in the slightly rough around the edges campsite four kilometres north of town. Though we can’t really be too critical of this site: it’s apparently the only campsite in New Zealand with a whole hour’s free internet access included in the price.

We crawled into our tent and watched an episode of Doctor Who and went to sleep hoping that the wind wouldn’t turn during the night and send the lovely smell of burnt rubber and what not from the pile of burning building rubble our way…

Day 312 – November 3 : Wet hill

We set out into the wind with the weather looking like it would become nice and sunny. The first 30km was flat right next to Firth of Thames zigzagging in and out of the many bays.

In one of the bays I had a visitation on my rear tyre, it was still running one of the old inner tubes. Just as we were nearly finished the lady across the way came and offered us a cup of tea. How nice! Too bad I was putting the panniers back on the bike and ready to get going.

We had lunch at the bottom of the first hill of the day, we needed some fuel for the next 20km. As we climbed up a rather serious the hill we got over taken by a club run, which made us look like we were standing still. They encouraged us with lots of “You’re going well!” and “My, you’re loaded up!” which made us feel slightly better.

On the last few metres of the second hill the skies opened and before we’d had chance to rummage in the panniers for the wet weather gear, we were absolutely drenched. But, since it was nearly 20C, the downhill was wet but not too cold, though Peli begged to differ (she does feel the cold! No one would know she’s from the North!).

We found a friendly little campsite, at $NZD15 per person our cheapest yet, showered and dried off before going out on a cake hunt. By the time we were ready the time was nearly dinner time, so we shopped for food and had the cake for pudding.

Day 313 – November 4 : Ripio again

We didn’t need to make breakfast for me this morning, I got it all served. There was a company outing sharing our campsite and they went the whole nine yards when it came to a English breakfast and they’d made too much. Enter hungry cycle tourer! Sadly everything was fried in the same non-veggie butter so Peli had to live with vegemite on toast and the banana porridge that I cooked up for her. When they packed they gave us leftovers – slices of apple, sausages, tea bags, a water bottle and even home-made birthday cake!
 
The next 30km was on tar sealed roads as they call tarmac down here before it turned into gravel roads.

Around 10km outside Corville we picked up a friendly German chap, Chris, who lives in Auckland and was out on his road bike for the weekend. We spent a bit of time cycling with him and enjoyed lunch together before he had to head for back to Coromandel to catch a ferry back to Auckland. Now, if we had known about this ferry before Anthony arrived we could a have concocted a different route out and avoided the suburbs. Oh well!

After Chris turned back we had one little hill to climb before we enjoyed five or so kilometres of flat valley roads with a lovely tail wind. Beautiful countryside and again very, very bright green, it’s not the same green we are used to in Europe.

With nine kilometres to go the gravel road started. Now this “rough” road surface has nothing on the ripio we found in Patagonia. This would be like baby-bottom-smooth-newly-laid asphalt compared to what we cycled on down there.

Beautiful views and nice up-and-down hills were enjoyed to Waikawau Bay DoC (Department of Conservation) campsite. This was sadly only tainted by the fact that I had to stop now and again to rest my painful wrists, arms and hands.

The Waikawau Bay DoC is the biggest in New Zealand at high season, and it is already fully booked, hosting up to 2000 campers. It is just a little hop and skip away from a simply stunning remote beach where good fishing is to be had and you can pick shellfish at low tide. We had a great chat with the host/ranger lady who seems to have landed a dream job.

Day 314 – November 5 : Gone fishing

Today’s ride would be short at around 30km, and I knew that there would be hills. But boy, we were in for a surprise.

While having breakfast we were treated to an acrobatic helicopter show. A helicopter from the coastguard was flying around showing off its skills while another was hovering and filming it all. I wonder what for?

Waikawau Bay is a really beautiful and wild beach, we could easily have spent a few days there, but contented ourselves with an hour in the morning light. We were the only ones there. It is accessed via a small path at the bottom of the campsite and doesn’t appear to have any car access, thankfully. The local postman later stopped us while we cycled past and told us to visit Little Waikawau Bay as it should be the best beach on the North Island. We dipped down to have a look. We agree it was nice, but as cars could drive onto it, it wasn’t as breathtaking as “big” Waikawau bay in our humble opinion.

We had lunch in Kennedy Bay and were visited by a local who told us about the area and fishing (he did go on a bit – I don’t think he’d had anyone to talk to for a while). Suddenly, mid sentence, he asked if we liked crayfish. “I do” I said, and a few seconds later I had a wrapped frozen crayfish thrust into my hands. He had cooked it all ready, I just had to defrost it.

We set off and the climb started gently at first and then it really kicked in. On some of the steepest places they had put tarmac down, it wouldn’t have been fun on gravel. We had many stops to let cars past on the narrow bends but also to put our lungs back into their rightful homes. The last hundred metres I had to resort to my lowest gear, my two feet. Peli managed to pedal all the way up. The ride up was well worth it for the stunning views of the bays and islands around the Coromandel Peninsula. The landscape reminded us a lot of the San Juan islands we’d visited off the Washington Coast in America.

Day 315 – November 6 : It’s all downhill

Any cycle tourer knows that a good way to wake your legs up in the morning is to find the nearest hill and cycle over it. At just 370 metres it doesn’t sound like much at all, but they way they build roads down here 370 metres is plenty, as it goes straight up. No messing. The first kilometre is nice and flat, then three kilometres of up-ness, with very steep bits in parts.

Peli loves being up high for the views and vastness all around. I agree, though sometimes, as you’re fighting your way up, it’s hard to see the beauty in it all. But what goes up must come down and this is the part where I go wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today we discovered a link between my sore hands and wearing the helmet. Yesterday while on the quiet back roads I took my lid off and the tingling, numbness and pain up my arms to the shoulder along with the pain from the base of the skull down the spine and shoulder blades was much more tolerable, even on gravel roads.

Today since we would be on a main road again I put the magic hat on and I was in agony within a mile. Bother.

The ride into Whatianga was in places very beautiful with sandy beaches, bays and islands which were visible from atop the hills. Peli had a paddle in warm, crystal clear water on a beach of white sand while we relaxed and ate peanut butter sandwiches and slices of orange. Have we made you sick yet?

We found the i-Site and again their helpfulness delighted us, yet another thing that makes visiting New Zealand worthwhile. They certainly go out of their way to help everyone with unbiased advice. And they always seem to have lots of time for everyone. No stress.

Snuggled up in our tent at the local campsite watching Doctor Who the rain started big time. But we were snug as frogs in a large green sock, not a drop came in to disturb our sleep. Our Hilleberg, despite its zip faults, definitely makes camping in the rain a pleasurable experience.

Day 316 – November 7 : In hot water

We woke up to clear skies and a dry tent, packed up nice and easy and went hunting for food.

At the i-Site we managed to book a bus down to Tauranga for Friday from Hot Water Beach and also got some useful snippets of information about what to see in the area. Taking the bus would gain us a few days in hand, and allow us to skip a section of busy road down that the Pedallers’ Paradise guidebook tells us has been dubbed ‘The Suicide Highway’ by Kiwi cyclists.   

At the picture postcard harbour in Whitianga we took the tiny passenger ferry to hop across the bay, saving around 20 km riding. Lunch was had in an idyllic little bay just outside Cook Beach, named after that famous sailor Captain Birdseye, I mean Cook! You know, that sailor who got all the fame, statues and knighthoods from finding new and far lands, when it wasn’t even him who shouted Land Ahoy! or stood on these fair shores first. Anyhow, Cook and his merry men anchored up at Cooks Beach (I wonder what it was called before he put a flag in it?) some years ago. It must have been amazing to be the first (or somewhat first) person who saw this.

The landscape and weather were kind to us today but we could feel the last eight or so days in our legs. We were glad, then, to have a short day before our rest day. We stopped at Cathedral Cove in Hahei Beach which was a bit of a bugger to cycle up to (yes, steepness again – something of a theme here in NZ) before the 40 minute walk down to the Cove, but well worth it.

We spent half an hour or so at the Cathedral Cove, paddling in the nearly warm water, a rather paradise moment. Since the tourist guides have a photo of a woman jumping up in front of the cove we saw at least two others trying to re-enact that jump.

We rolled into Hot Water Beach late in the afternoon and pitched up at the Top10 campsite there. Probably the “worst” of all the Top10s we have been to, with 120+ pitches, a famous beach next door and only two shower cubicles in the men’s and women’s bathrooms. And the brand new kitchen could have been planned out much better, so that you don’t fall over your fellow camper with a pot with boiling water. (Grumble, grumble, look at at us becoming grumpy old cycle tourers…)

Good news: it was only thumbs up from the “United Nations” of travellers sitting around the TV in the campsite, watching the US election results. Four more years with the Obama administration. As one American tourist put it, thank f**k for that. After nearly five month in the States in the run-up to the election, we know Obama is far from perfect, but by heck he’s much better than what could have been. Phew.

Day 317 – November 8 : Rest day

Sleeping, tea drinking and eating were done in champion style as we indulged in a lovely rest day.

Today I was contemplating beards. My mission to grow my beard, untrimmed, for a full year might fail on three grounds: complaints from my touring partner; the amount of beard all over the tent and panniers (boy, do I moult); and the fact that when riding in a side wind I get beard in my eyes which isn’t something I’m used to. Peli has tried to plait it but it solves only one of the above issues. How does the bearded cyclist cope with such trials and tribulations?

Two hours before low tide we wandered, spade in hand, to the Hot Water Beach. Only at low tide, two hours either side, can you access the hot water coming from 2km down below you from a pocket of lava leftover from a volcanic eruption a few million years ago. (Mind boggles.) With the enthusiasm of wee kids at the beach, we dug a hole in the sand, built a wall around it, watched the hot water seep through, waited for a wave of cooler water to refill the hole and dived into our own makeshift spa pool.

A few seconds later Peli was rushing out to sea with our Ortlieb kitchen sink (yes! we came prepared!) to get cold water for our hot water tub. Our spot was rather close to where we could see the hot water seeping up from below, so our little pool became very hot rather fast. You really had to be careful as the raw water can get up to 65c.

It was a surreal experience, lying like beached whales – albeit warm and relaxed beached whales – amongst fifty other people, surrounded by little heaps of sand, watching the sun go down.

The post Blog: New Zealand, North Island – Coromandel Peninsular appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Highlights: Back in New Zealand, cycling with friends, Boysenberry ice cream, beautiful views and surprisingly good driving from lorries.

Day 293-295 – October 15-17 : Back in NZ

After being in the air for two hours from Portland to LA and then 13 hours to Auckland, where we missed out on October the 15 completely, it’s not really the best time to be spending three hours outside a windy, cold Auckland airport at 8am putting our bicycles together.

We cycled the ten kilometres to the nearest campsite, crawled into bed (we’d booked a basic cabin for two nights) and proceeded to sleep for 18 hours. We even missed dinner time! I know I watched four films on the plane, but can only remember three. We will never get used to long distance flying.

We spent a day pottering around a sunny, windy Auckland trying to find free and working internet access, which turned out to be rather hard. We had become used to free, fast and available wifi in the remotest of places in Patagonia and North America. But New Zealand is still stuck in the stone age of the digital age with paid-for internet cafes, which used to be on every street corners in London but are now obsolete since we have free wifi everywhere. So we settled for a SIM card for our mobile and loaded it up with megabytes, so that we at least could get our email fix, but a price.

Day 296 – October 18 : Mighty, mighty Cardiff!

Riding from the south of Auckland to Northland is not something we would recommend, since most of the journey will be done through suburbia and on busy roads. The most direct way north is SH1, but as the Pedallers’ Paradise guide to cycling in New Zealand states – no sane cyclist would ride on SH1. So we took the long way around but still not the most scenic of routes.

Our first day of riding in a new place always ends up being a short day. Hunting fuel, food and just getting ready on the first morning takes time. So by mid-afternoon – and it was a drizzly and windy day – we had only done 25km and were in need of a rest. We found a Boy Scouts Camp and asked if we could pitch our tent for the night. NZ$15 later we had a lovely pitch tucked away in the forest, with our own shelter from the rain, fire pit and access to a hot shower. Bargain!

Day 297 – October 19 : Hot springs

We were woken many times during the night by heavy but short showers, which made the sandy ground beneath us very muddy. But we were still hot, dry and comfy especially Peli in her new Western Mountaineering sleeping bag. Smooth is the word! Though we have to watch out for her on slopes because the sleeping bag is over slippery on our mats and she might end up sliding into oblivion! Well, into the bottom of the tent. 

We finally found the Discovery Coastal road, SH16, which was rather “scenic” (read: hilly) and with the strong side wind this did make it a hard day. In Kumenu the local i-Site (the name for Tourist Info Centres in NZ) lived up to expectations and gave us some great information including directions to a campsite with discount hot springs and swimming pool. This knowledge made the final 22km into the wind was rather easier to endure.

We spent 45 minutes in the 40c hot water, which funnily enough drained us more that the strong wind. After a few lengths of the cooler outdoor pool and a great dinner knocked up by champion chef Peli, we crawled into bed.

Day 298 – October 20 : tired legs

The warm soak yesterday made getting out of our sleeping bags rather hard. It drained us! The wind had died down and sun had come out but the hills, of course, were still there.

We cycled into Helensville and quickly celebrated with them, 150 years young the town is. The rest of the day’s ride was through farmland with a mixture of sheep and cattle living merrily side-by-side. We had forgotten how green New Zealand is. It’s Tellytubby land: just rolling hill after rolling hill of bright, brilliant green-ness.

In Wellsford we asked at a RSA centre (an organisation for retired military folk) about a place to camp as there are no campgrounds in town. We were kindly pointed to the Centennial Park, where we pitched up next to a pretty little pond with its own miniature humpbacked bridge and nearby loos. Perfect. 

Day 299 -  October 21 : Wet gears

We got up early since dog walkers parked their cars right next to us. Though our departure was delayed by a slow flat that reared its head yesterday but which I struggled to find the cause of.

And for some weird reason Peli’s front derailleur started to play up. It went from shifting just fine to impossible to even move the thumb shifter. The more I fettled the harder to shift it became and the fewer gears she could use. The outer and inner cables looked fine but I changed them anyway and they seemed to run nice and smooth. And the shifter and derailleur moved and worked fine too.

But, I put it all together and it would gear down but not up. We got it set to middle gear and decided that we needed a bike shop to have them check it over.

But, the fettling wasn’t over. At a pit stop Peli spotted that I had somehow managed to wrap the cable around the bottle cage. I fettled it some more and lo and behold the shifting was completely back to its normal self. Huh?

Oh, I forgot to mention that this fettling was made all the harder by the wet weather. Just as we were thinking, “Oh, I can take my jacket off now” the rain came back wetter than before.

We were back on Stuart Highway 1 which because of the Labour Holiday weekend was rather busy.  But traffic disappeared as soon as we turned into the wind and onto Stuart Highway 12 for the last 21km to the campsite in Paparoa. Here we camped right outside the kitchen and since it was still raining, we took it over with all our stuff (can’t think where we get that trait from), had much need showers and washed and dried our wet gear.

Day 300 – October 22 : 300 days away

Wow. It has now been 300 days since we took off on our little journey. It’s been hard going at times, what with crashes and broken forks and asthma, but we have had lots of good solid fun, met some lovely people and seen some memorable sights. And had the odd slice of cake now and again. 

10am seems to be our NZ departure time, no matter how early we get up. We did only a few miles before we arrived in “Denmark” – flat, very flat and cycling right into the wind. Lucky the wind had died down compared to the last two days and then rain had decided to have a break too.

A few kilometres later we met two girls from Germany, who had also just started their tour of New Zealand, but had six months to explore these wonderful islands. They were struggling into the wind with their trailer and bright orange jackets. You cannot miss them!

Important note to any cycle tourer: check your spare inner tubes. I know you might think of them as a dead weight and if you’re lucky they are just that. Ours have lived in an outside pannier pocket with sun, heat, damp, cold and lots and lots of dust for company over the last year, all of which has taken its toll. One of the reasons why my inner tube swapping yesterday and today didn’t keep the puncture fairies away is that they are rotting away. Today I fixed a hole and while I was pumping up I heard the air coming out elsewhere. I quickly found the new hole (on a weakened fold in the tube where it had been wrapped up), fixed that, only to find that the valve gave up the ghost while pumping again. New tubes are in order as soon as we reach a bike shop!

The only other thing to report on this route other than the flatness and wind is that this is the area to grow Kumura, a sweet potato, we must try that out.

Now, can someone pass me that soapbox? That big one over there, yes. Thanks. What’s that? No, it’s OK, I can climb up myself.

Clears throat. Ahem.

OK. As I mentioned before, getting internet access in New Zealand even with our new SIM card is still harder than in the remotest of places in Patagonia! Even free access in McDonalds (yes, please forgive me) is dreadfully slow. If we do manage to get online there our smart phones either tell us it is too slow to work with or not secure enough. This makes it a bit hard to find out a meeting point with friend who is joining us in three days time and to find out if Peli’s new batch of drugs has arrived in Auckland. Come on New Zealand, sort out your internet!

Day 301 – October 23 : Horrid day

We somehow missed out celebrating our three hundredth day yesterday so we went to a cafe in Dargaville, managing to get absolutely soaking wet in the one kilometre ride from the campground to town centre. We quickly ordered breakfast and a pot of tea which turned out to be pretty much the best thing on the menu. My meal was OK, bar the not-so-tasty and dry bread. Peli’s on the other hand was down right horrid! She usually can eat pretty much anything (as long as it’s vegetarian, of course), but her food – kumara and corn fritters with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce (the only veggie thing on the menu) made her feel very icky for the rest of the morning. So much for a celebratory meal.

So we set out into the rain towards Whangarei on the east coast of the northland peninsula. We had been told by a lady from the i-Site in Kumenu that the road shouldn’t be that busy. Therefore we happily set out into the rain and tailwind.

But the i-Site lady was wrong. The road was very busy indeed and the logging trucks weren’t keen on keeping to the speed limits or giving us much room as the thundered past.

The silver lining of the day: dripping wet and desperate for a hot drink we stopped at a tavern at the half-way point. At first it looked very closed but I knocked anyway in the hope that we could at least use the facilities. They were indeed shut, but the lady of the house put the kettle on anyway. Within minutes we both were warming ourselves on two big free mugs of tea that hit the spot big time, thank you.

Day 302- October 24 : Rest day

At the Whangarei campsite we had a nice lie- and leisurely breakfast chatting to fellow cycle tourers Andrew and Hilary from Bristol and Andreas from Austria. Everyone had bailed out and decided it was time to have a rest day after all the wind, rain and hills.

The day was spent finding wifi, getting a prescription for more asthma medication for Peli (just to tide her over until her drugs mules from Portland and Auckland replenished her supplies), getting fresh inner tubes, fettling the bikes and doing some washing. The usual bike tourers’ admin, then.

Day 303 – October 25 : Visit

We left the campsite early to meet Anthony off his bus. He’s an old flatmate of mine from London who’d taken some much-needed days off from his job in Sydney to tour with us for four days. Hurrah! We love it when friends join us for part of our tour.

We finished up a few errands – new cable for Peli’s front derailleur picking up her medication from the chemist. Apparently she’s on an extra-strong prescription which needed to be specially ordered by the very helpful local pharmacist, who recognised her as soon as she walked into the shop and served her with a smile.

Leaving Whangarei we visited the nearby waterfalls in a very nice little park just outside the town. The first few kilometres were on SH1 which were busy but not scarily so. When we turned off SH1 onto Russell Road it became very quiet and very beautiful, rolling green hills with good views over the surrounding farmland.

The road in places was very rather scenic and the very last one before the campsite in Oankara was rather steep. Anthony flew up the hills like a mountain goat while we plodded slowly with our heavy loads. Like packhorses, I suppose. Oankara lies in stunning  Wanankakaka bay, of which we had a great view from our tent.

Day 304 – October 26 : The Germans

Departure was massively delayed because we got chatting to a lovely German family. Two young kids and their mum and dad who were cycle touring New Zealand for nine months. They also had a Hilleberg – the Keron 4GT. (Peli impressed them by knowing more about their tent than they did. See what happens when you become an obsessive cycle tourer?) Hendrik, their energetic five year-old who speaks delightful English along with his native German, is the spitting image of Matt Smith, the current Doctor Who. Astonishing. (Warning: in-joke. Look! An Eagle!)

We were warned that the road ahead of us would be hilly but also very beautiful. True as true can be, we slogged up hill after hill and enjoyed great views of little bays and beaches.

It was great to have Anthony with us and we, again, spent much time chatting and catching up. Which meant when we arrived in the pretty little coastal town of Russell, former capital of New Zealand, it was getting a bit late.

We quickly pitched up, picked up some beers and bbqed some sausages (anyone spot the Australian influence here?) while catching snippets of Coronation Street on the communal telly. We’ve seen more of British soaps while we’ve been here than in the past ten years in the UK!

Day 305 – October 27 : Bowling

Boy, can that boy chat! Yet another morning where we departed much nearer noon than we are used to. (Only pulling your leg, Anthony. It was good to have you on board, great fun.)

First thing, Peli dragged me up the steep hill to the viewpoint over Russell and the Bay of Islands, more than 120 of them, while Anthony hunted for coffee and freshly baked muffins.

We took the little passenger ferry over to Paihia, where we got our internet fix, 15 minutes for free, push that boat out! Anthony also booked a bus back to Auckland in three days’ time.

The next bit was unfortunately on the busy SH10 again and still rather rolling, which tired us out, especially me. So I called time out when we got to Kaeo.

With nowhere to camp in sight I brushed off my manners, removed wildlife from my beard and politely asked a passing lady if she knew of anywhere. She told us we could pitch up behind the bowling green, as long as we weren’t axe murderers. We must have reassured her, as we were welcomed by her troop of fellow bowling enthusiasts and given fresh water, a spot of grass to pitch on (not the bowling green, in case you were wondering) and some leftover biscuits and scones from a tournament held earlier in the day.

Anthony, that bad influence, twisted my arm so badly that I had to buy a round of beers since there was a bar on the premises, and as they were putting us up for the night it would be rude not to.

Three “handles” (as they call the beer glasses here) later, Peli reminded us that there was still some tent pitching to do before bed time and we still needed to cook dinner before it went dark.

Day 306 – October 28 : Short day

It’s much easier to get an early start when you wild camp and we were up and ready by 9am, having made use of the facilities in the college next door. We managed one kilometre before we had breakfast outside the local small supermarket.

We had two options: two long days of riding or one short day with a medium day riding. Since I was tired from the day before, Peli was feeling rather weak today and we didn’t want scare Anthony off cycle touring, we took the easy option: a short day into Hihi Bay campsite and a medium-length day tomorrow.

There aren’t many choices this far north in Northland as far as roads are concerned, so we again had to endure the busy and hilly SH10.

We arrived, pitched up in good time with dark clouds hanging over Doubtless Bay. We relaxed and chatted with tea and snacks. We’d forgotten how aggressive the ducks are in New Zealand, Peli nearly lost her fingers when when one jumped up into her lap to get her nibbles, they are not to be messed with. She nearly lost her ice cream the last time we were here, due to a duck attack.

As we enjoyed dinner, the rain started, which turned out to be rather hard in the night.

Day 307 – October 28 : Cake and ice cream for the birthday boy

We had nearly 50km left to Kaitaia where Anthony would leave us to take his bus back to Auckland before flying on to Sydney. So we were under pressure to find cake for the soon-to-be birthday boy, a date that we couldn’t make in November as we would still be cycling around New Zealand.

The first attempts to locate baked goods failed, so we bailed out and got ice cream instead. One thing, among others, the Kiwis really can make is ice cream! How can you forget the double boysenberry or Hokey Pokey flavoured yummyness?

The rolling hills became flatlands just as the clouds became darker and the headwind had more of a kick to it.

As we rolled into Kaitaia the shops and cafes were closing down for the day and the town started to look like a ghost town. We checked the bus time table and departure location at the local i-Site and were told that – contrary to the information in the Pedallers’ Paradise guidebook – there was no camping in town, only one 14km away. Not the best for a 8am bus departure when you need to be a the bus stop early with a bike.

We checked out the only backpacker sign we saw and let’s just say DO NOT go to the Hike and Bike Backpacker in central Kaitaia! It’s a dosshouse…

After some weighing up of the options, and some pleading puppy-eyed looks from Anthony, the three of us checked into a family suite at a little motel (with walls! and beds! and hot water!) and got warmed up with tea and the cake we’d managed to find in town.

Even though we were “celebrating” Anthony’s birthday he treated us to a delicious dinner (thanks!) in the only restaurant in town that was open apart from KFC and a seedy looking bar with karaoke blasting from within. 

Day 308 – October 30: Loitering

We said our goodbyes to Anthony (thanks for a great few days and see you in Australia!) early in the morning. After a leisurely breakfast in our own private kitchen (what a novelty!) we packed up and went over to the i-Site to book our bus ticket to Auckland.

We couldn’t get on the same bus as Anthony because they can just about take two bicycles at the time. Plus – as usual – we were not organised and hadn’t really decided what to do when Anthony booked his tickets.

So, tomorrow we will take the bus down to Auckland as it will save a week’s riding south and miss out on some of the busier roads and the ride across Auckland. This means more time on the South Island, and also a chance to collect Peli’s medications from our contact in Auckland (thank you, Martin, for putting us in touch with your old boss! The wonders of the Wide Eyed Web. And thank you, Laura in Portland, for sending them on!).

We then spent the day relaxing in the sun in the park next to where we’d planned to wild camp for the night. Loitering is really hard work, actually. You have to try to look like you’re just having a rest or stopping for a food stop, and it gets rather taxing when you have to do it for eight hours or more. Though the New Zealanders aren’t too bothered. They usually just give you a nod or a wave as they walk past even after you have pitched up.

In the end, we went for a little pootle to stretch our legs and found a more suitable wild camping location behind a building at the rugby field. We quickly cooked a peasant’s dinner of beans, bread, cheese and tomatoes, and settled down for an early night.

Northland has definitely had pockets of beauty, especially around the Bay of Islands, but in general we’ve been surprised at how busy the roads have been compared to the South Island. We’re looking forward to heading off the beaten track a bit as we make our way out of Auckland and onto the Coromandel Peninsula.

Click here to more photos from our visit to the Northland, the top of New Zealand.

The post Blog: New Zealand, North Island – Northland appeared first on Cycle touring at pootle pace: routes, reviews and cake stops.

Highlights: Beautiful weather, beautiful views, beautiful orcas and beautiful sunsets. A reminder of the joys of cycle touring!

Day 233 – August 30 : Train to Seattle

The Amtrak Cascades railway route is one of the very few trains in the USA which allows bikes without needing to pack them into cardboard boxes. So the 3-hour journey from Portland to Seattle was very easy and stress-free.

We had ten miles of riding to get to our warmshowers host. They’d given us a brilliant route description which took us away from the busy road and onto good trails.

Day 234 – August 31 : Hilleberg visit

From Seattle to Redmond there is an offroad rail trail which runs almost door-to-door from our hosts’ house to Hilleberg’s USA HQ. So we made a day out of it, testing Peli’s legs on her first ride after all the asthma business, and we got to explore a bit of Seattle that not many visitors see.

The Burke Gilman trail goes around Lake Washington on the north side and then follows the Sammamish river all the way to Redmond. Yes, the same Redmond where Microsoft is based (yes, we did spot some of their famous offices, and we’re guessing that the geeky-looking people glued to their screens on our return bus were probably Microsofties).

At Hilleberg we got our fixed tent back. We swapped the inner tent for a brand-new one with better grade zips, new sliders for the outer tent, and an extra length of spare pole. This was accompanied by something of a ‘slap on the wrist’. We were clearly and sternly told that we should have been cleaning our zips every day (yes, every day!) and also to use a bath tub to thoroughly wash the tent more often. (As you might imagine, all this is not that easy when you’re using your tent for a long-distance expedition and move location every day).

To be honest, we left Hilleberg with our tails between our legs, feeling rather disheartened about the experience. We certainly were not made to feel like valued customers, especially given that these tents are Not Cheap (Ours cost almost 1000GBP). The contact we had with their customer service staff didn’t quite ring true with the marketing blurb from their office posters: “Supremely reliable and easy to use in all seasons and all conditions….”

A disclaimer should be attached to that statement: “… As long as you have a toothbrush and bathtub to hand.”

We’re cogitating about writing an email to Petra Hilleberg herself. Their customer service is very defensive of the Hilleberg brand, and contrasts rather strongly with the concern and bend-over-backwards helpfulness shown to us by Showers Pass, Exped and Supernova, for example.

The silver lining of the day was that the Raven Brewery was just over the road from Hilleberg, so I had a nice de-stressing drink or two, while Peli sipped Coke and nibbled at the free pretzels. Great beers there, just one word of warning, they are a bit strong. So I was glad that we got to take the bus for most of the way back. For all you might say about the US’s love of cars, their rather good bus services always seem to have 2-3 bicycle racks on the front.

Day 235 – September 1 : Bainbridge and bakery

We were not really in a hurry since we had a small ride to the ferry and ever shorter ride from the ferry. So we left our wonderful hosts (thank you Steve and family!) mid morning and took our time cycling into downtown Seattle. We even had time to look at the famous Pike market (OK, we didn’t realise it was famous until we saw it in the Lonely Planet) before getting the ferry.

The ferry ride over to Bainbridge gave a great view of downtown Seattle and the islands across the bay. It must be a lovely commute to do, on a par with Manly to Sydney.

Arriving on Bainbridge Island we had to go to the bakery which we had been told (or warned) about by others. Even with the shelves of the bakery rather empty (it was now early afternoon) the bits of cake we got were yummy. We settled in chez our warmshowers host, Bruce, before taking a leisurely afternoon spin. But first we had to eat at a little vegetarian Thai takeaway which was fresh, cheap and delicious. On our little evening loop we saw Mount Rainer and some houses that clearly cost $stupidmoney since they had a view over the bay to Seattle. Back in town we found the ice cream shop, Mora Ice Cream, and indulged ourselves with delights involving dulce de leche, chocolate and frozen yoghurt.

Day 236 – September 2 : Tour de Bainbridge.

Bruce, our host, took us out on a very pleasant spin around Bainbridge Island, showing us some back roads and trails that I’m sure not many people see. Most of the ride took in the route taken by the Pie Ride (every cafe on the island makes pies, and you get to ride around to taste them!). Now there’s an idea for when we return to the UK!

We stopped off for ingredients for home-made pizza and had another little detour to the ice cream shop (well, it was over 30 miles and hilly and hot!). The evening was spent having a good natter and we learnt that our host had a boat in Port Townsend, our next port of call.

Day 237 – September 3 : Finding our legs

Since we had done most of the island once already, our host offered to give us a lift off the island and it also meant that distances between campgrounds lined up better. It is a recovery ride after all! Bruce dropped us off at the bottom end of Big Valley road, which turned out to be a very pleasant road north. Thanks Bruce! We had elevenses in Port Gamble, a very quaint little town-come-museum.

This island and the peninsulas around Puget Sound make great scenic geography, otherwise known as plenty of hills with stunning views. We managed to find our way to Oak Bay Park campground where we had a great view over a bay and Mount Rainer.

Day 238 – September 4 : The Blue Moose

Route 20 and the main road into Port Townsend was rather busy with fast moving big trucks, so we were rather glad to find the railtrail for the last five miles into town. We found Bruce’s boat Måken on land, since he is still restoring it. It is an old Norwegian wooden coastguard boat which he used to call home.

What we didn’t know was that the amazing Blue Moose Cafe was right next to his boat. We trekked all the way into town to the local bike shop, Broken Spokes, to be told that this was THE best greasy spoon in town. Luckily the round trip was just about two miles, which helped us work up a hunger for breakfast. We stuffed ourselves with Green Eggs and Ham for woolly and a spinach, pepper and cheese for Peli. Oh, and a cheeky pancake to share on the side. We were hungry!

Then we cycled onto the ferry to Whidbey island and straight on towards Coupeville, a pretty little town on the island. Then we continued towards Deception Pass our camp for the night. First part was away from the busy highway 20 but up and down some long drags. Then we had to join 20 to go past the navy air base and its very noisy planes that buzzed overhead. While coming past the air base we spotted a rugged-looking chap on horseback, leading two pack horses. How he managed to keep the three horses calm alongside heavy traffic with jet fighters doing manoeuvres overhead… the mind boggles! A few days later we met a lady who’d spoken to him. He’d ridden from the east coast to the north west and is now on his way to California. He apparently made ferry crossings by hanging around ports until a lorry/truck would take him and his steeds onboard the boat. Incredible.

Deception Pass State Park had some steep hills to navigate before we found our very well-hidden hiker biker site. The evening’s entertainment consisted of a couple who drunkenly – and loudly – argued well past two in the morning. No tent to be seen among their stuff, hmmm.

Day 239 – September 5 : Rescue dog and ferry to Lopez island.

We got up and packed to find the rowdy couple hugging each other. Oh, we thought. All’s well that ends well! Peace and quiet wasn’t to last, however. As we rolled down the hill there they were, shrieking at each other again…

We spent some time at at Deception Pass (the reason for the name is that when the tide flows, it’s opposite to the way you’d expect). We admired the views from the vertigo-inducing bridge before heading onto the dreadful Highway 20 again toward Anacortes. Around 10 miles out we joined a rail trail and abandoned the busy highway. The trail ran alongside the bay and it was there that we spotted a wee dog, Nancy, wearing a lifesaver vest, swimming about with glee. Her owner was training her to be a rescue dog for him when out kayaking.  Nancy was totally frozen to the bone but he could not keep her out of the water. She just loved dragging big logs back to the shore and kept demanding to go back into the freezing depths! Although apparently she was scared of the warm bathtub at home – what strange creatures these pups are.

In Anacortes we rolled onto the ferry to Lopez Island: one price to go out to the San Juan islands and then unlimited free ‘hopping’ between the islands.

We had been warned by our hosts in Seattle that a hill greets you as soon as you ride off the ferry (“How rude!” as our host put it). But then, the island should be mostly flat. We found the County Campground easily and our delightful hiker biker spot in a clearing amongst the trees, right next to the water. While Peli cooked up a storm (sausages of the meat and veggie variety, according to taste – yum) I took some photos of the stunning sunset. We ate in the last light watching the ferries going to and from. Years ago there were so many ferries between the islands and the mainland that they called them the mosquito fleet.

Day 240 – September 6 : Hidden Cove

Quite a few people said that Lopez Island wouldn’t be that hilly so we set out for a gentle 30ish miles, only to find our out-of-condition legs slightly challenged by the many ups and downs as we went in and out to the coast to see the nooks and crannies. Looking out to sea we saw wonderful views of the many sail boats and ferries along with views of the other islands. The weather was just spot on with a very gentle breeze, wall-to-wall sunshine and around the 20-23c. Just a perfect day for a bit of cycling.

We found, down a very steep hill, a beautiful hidden cove, Watmough Bay, where we had our lunch, dipped our toes in the water and just relaxed and enjoyed life. We spent a little too long there in the end since we still had to get into “town”, find the bakery, do some shopping and get back before sunset. So we skipped one scenic detour to be able to fit it all in. Outside the supermarket we chatted to a cycle touring couple who also were “killing time” on the islands before they fly down under to continue their world tour. They got as far as Colombia before they pulled the plug and went home, the rough roads and having a gun made the decision for them!

Day 241 – September 7 : Hill climbing.

Peli managed to talk me into agreeing that a visit to Orcas Island would be a good idea. I had hoped that we could avoid the in-and-out ride, from harbour to campsite and back again, involving a long hill. And because we’d heard from everyone we’d talked to that Orcas would be the least bicycle-friendly of all the islands. We needn’t have worried, though, as the worst we experienced was that the drivers didn’t wave that much compared to nearly all the drivers on Lopez Island.

The ACA route took us off the main road and into the rather hilly backroads. I had to get off on one hill and push, but Peli – stubborn as she is – managed it without walking.

Eastsound is a pretty little town and a major tourist trap, but served good – though pricy – ice cream, do try the Huckleberry flavour one.

Our campsite in Moran State Park was on the shores of Cascade Lake at the bottom of Mount Constitution, which we would climb after we’d pitched our tent and dropped off some of our heavy panniers. It was roughly five miles up on a good surface through a beautiful forest – and somewhat steep in places – the elevation gain is around 800 metres. But well worth the hour’s riding for the breathtaking views over the other islands, Canada and mighty Mt. Baker. And then there’s is the downhill right back to our campsite where Peli treated me to her yummy cooking before we – rather tired – went to bed.

Day 242 – September 8 : Ferry to Friday Harbour

We had a few options with the ferry. The first one was way too early for us! The mid-morning one could be done but that still meant an early start. The one after lunch sounded good. The later one just wouldn’t allow us enough time to faff about, cake taste, talk to people and enjoy life before sunset, at the other side of the island.

Since we had taken the more ‘scenic’ (hilly) route to the campsite, we took the main road back to the ferry port. We arrived a bit too early (isn’t it always the way when you don’t rush?) so sat around in the ticket office charging our gizmos while waiting for the next ferry.

Arriving in Friday Harbour we could see this is the main town and destination for many for a little trip out to the islands from Seattle and the surrounding cities. It really had that “day trip tourist” feeling to it. Not a bad thing when they serve some great chips, and they even called them “chips” at the local fish’n'chips shop, not “fries”. You pretty much just needed the newspaper wrapper.

As always on this part of our tour our departure from Friday Harbour was delayed by food shopping, chatting to fellow cyclists or people who curious about where we’d been. Depending on how we feel or how busy we are, we have a few versions of our story to tell now.

James, our GPS, had one idea on how to get across the island but luckily I spotted that something was up before we got too lost, far into a dead end, which by the sound of it would also be steep. While I was checking the GPS against the map a local man told us the right way to go to the San Juan County Park. So we added an extra three miles or so to our journey. But hey we got to see – or rather smell – a lavender farm and more of the beautiful coast in the late afternoon sun than planned.

At San Juan County Park the hiker biker was on a slope but had the best views compared to the other sites in the campsite, so we ended up with a view over Vancouver island, the Salish Sea and the sunset.

Day 243 – September 9 : Rest day

This was supposed to be a take-it-easy-and-get-Peli-back-on-the-bike tour. But since Portland we have been on the move every day – a total of eight solid days.

So a little clothes washing was done and a heck of chilling out and reading our books, which included a bit of listening to the family next to us. They had shared some of their yummy smoked bacon, potato and cheese casserole with us the night before (yes, I ate Peli’s share). They seemed to be nice people, but when we heard them brainwashing their two young kids with tales of how they’d “die if they didn’t make a promise to God”, we were a little freaked out, to say the least.

The weather also decided to have a rest day so we endured (mainly snuggled in our nice warm tent) the first cold and grey day in eight sunny and warm days. We even had a very little bit of rain last night, and that evening a bit more rain came. Not enough to water the flowers but enough to stop the (nearly) record-breaking dry spell they had had in Washington. 40 days with no rain is unheard of.

Day 244 – September 10 : Last minute boat

As fellow camper said, how to spot whales at sea, look for 30 campers gathered together expectantly, pointing out to sea. Right from our tent we had a view of two pods of orcas cruising by. Unfortunately they didn’t get right close to the shore but it was still amazing to see them swim by. I talked to a lady who told me that they use to come into the sound to socialise, but now they are coming in to eat, too, since the salmon population is pretty much gone because of over-fishing and salmon farming. I didn’t know the orcas are picky: they only eat one kind of salmon even if there’s plenty of other salmon around.

We hadn’t really planned ahead, more take each day as it came, but also didn’t fancy doubling back on the roads we’d taken to get to the San Juan islands. One option was to take a ferry to Sidney in Canada, cycle to Victoria and then ferry over to the US. The other option was to jump on a tour boat operating out of Port Townsend.

The first one could mean leaving the USA with the risk of not being able to come back in, which we needed as we fly out of Portland, because of the visa we have. Many said we shouldn’t have any problems but we know that the border control rules had just changed and we are not on a normal visa waiver, which is also stricter than before.

That left the tour boat option, and I’d emailed them a few days before to check it was OK. The lack of internet access, however, meant we only got their reply today as we were using the free WiFi at a hotel in Roche Harbour. Our plans to stop there for a bite to eat and to admire the expensive yachts was cut short as we learned that the last tour boat of the season would would leave that very afternoon for Port Townsend. Well, we always like a challenge!

Luckily, San Juan is small and we managed to get ourselves in gear quickly with minimal faffing (yes, incredible) and race across the island, get lunch and find the boat before departure time. Phew! The waters were a bit too rough for Peli but she had cleverly stuffed herself with crystal ginger sweets by the bucketload, so she managed to keep everything inside her. We stopped at two small islands and had a look at the sea lions and seals enjoying the sun, before we arrived in Port Townsend.

We camped up at the State Park in Port Townsend (just remember folks, use the upper campground since they do not have hiker biker at the lower site, that will save you the journey).

Day 245 – September 11 : Dodging 101

Leaving Port Townsend was done via the same rail trail as we used to get into town a few days before. It added a few extra miles to the route but got us off the busy Route 101. The trail was just brilliant and we do hope that they get to extend it further in the future. We tried as much as we could to get off the 101 but at times it was not possible. It wasn’t because it was dangerous but it was just tiring to hear the big trucks coming past noisy and fast every 30 seconds.

A few miles outside Sequim we joined the Olympic Discovery Trail which we could follow for the rest of the day and most of tomorrow. The lack of signage meant that we missed a few miles of it, we spotted the trail from 101 and had to cycle alongside it for a while before we could access it.

The trail went straight through Sequim Bay State Park and the hiker biker site where we spotted four friendly cyclists on their way to southern California. That made five Surly bikes out of six, truly a good bicycle for touring.

Day 245 – September 12 : bottom of the hill

We followed the fantastic Olympic Discovery rail trail all the way to Port Angeles where we stocked up on food and goodies. We’d talked to other cyclists about what to see and where to go on the Olympic Peninsula. The response were 50:50 in favour of taking the east route, or the west route. It was most confusing. We were undecided on what to do. But one thing we knew we couldn’t miss was the epic climb up to Hurricane Ridge, right into the heart of the Olympic National Park, a hard 17 mile ride but well worth it for the views at the top.

At the ranger and park information booth I was told to go west around the peninsula, wider shoulder and a bit where we would miss out the busy 101. It also meant that we would avoid having to double back on ourselves again.

After reaching Port Angeles We had five miles to climb up to the Heart O’the Hills campground, which would spare us the steepest section in the morning but meant that we had to do it fully loaded today. Needless to say, we were knackered when, cold and sweaty, we rolled into the shady forested campground. 

Day 246 – September 13 : Hurricane Ridge

Our tired legs meant we got up in good time, but ended up having a very leisurely breakfast – well, more like brunch. So it was afternoon before we attacked the 14 miles up to the top, which should be the not-so-steep bit, but still involved a good 3000 feet climb.

The first few miles were in the forest and nice and cool as we climbed in the shade. But as the mountain got wilder the sun got fiercer, but the views were sufficient recompense. The last few miles took their toll – heavy touring bikes with wide off-road tyres are not made for fast ascents on tarmac!

We arrived out of water and stormed the little cafe to get an ice cream to cool us down. But no! There was none to be found! We guess it’s hard to get ice cream this high up in the USA or they lack the basic business knowledge. Tut tut. Surely they could guess that on a popular cycle route such as this you will make a mint if you sell ice cream at the side of the road!

So we settled for chips (fries) and water from the cool water fountain before we went out to enjoy the views of Mount Olympic and its impressive glacier.

The downhill took less than a fourth of the time it took going up. Wheee! We spent a few hours relaxing before stuffing ourselves and falling into a well-earned sleep.

Day 247 – September 14 : Single track MTB

The ranger we’d talked to a few days ago had recommended a gravel road and then a quiet single lane across the park. Hurrah – this meant we would not have to do the steep downhill into town and up again on the 101.

The route was also downhill most of the way which we can’t complain about either. We only had to be on the 101 for a few miles before we joined Easy Beach Road which ran on the north side of Lake Crescent, all the way to the start of Spruce Railroad Trail.

The rail trail I had first seen on a map as a MTB route, then a hiking trail. The tourist information in Port Angeles said that they’d walked it 20 years ago. And the ranger had never been there either, so we were stepping into the unknown! It was only when we arrived and saw signs for it that I knew it was a rail trail. So I somewhat nervous about it when we started. But hey, it couldn’t be worse than the Villa O’Higgins crossing between Argentina and Chile, and it would only be a few miles at the worst.

What we ended up with was a simply stunning bit of trail, rainforests, smooth trails and full-on mountain bike single track. We were flying along, shrieking with glee, on our fully loaded bikes at times just avoiding the odd rock or tree root. At other times we were on the side of the cliff with a 30 foot drop on one side and rocks on the other. Looking into the very clear water below it wouldn’t just be picking the bikes and our stuff up just under the surface, we’d need diving equipment, since we couldn’t see the bottom. What fun!

The single track turned into a newly-paved asphalt road right through the thick forest. According to the cycling map this part of the Olympic Discovery Trail has just opened, which could explain the lack of signs to the trail and to the little shop at Fairholm campground where we hoped to purchase ice cream. But the trail ended up around two miles up the hill from the lake and campground.

We had around 15 miles to a RV and Motel where we hoped to have a much-needed shower and even do some washing. The Hungry Bear RV park was a real American place, no pretensions to be modern or chic French style or anything other than it was. Country and Western was on the radio and the owners dressed the way you’d expect them to. We got a shower after I had to ask the owner since I had never seen a coin-operated one like this before and I was too tired to figure it out myself. Peli spent a good hour hand-washing our clothes in the plentiful hot water which was available. Ah, the small comforts!

Day 248 – September 15 : Twilight zone

There was a certain thing that we really couldn’t put our fingers at first about the town of Forks. Young girls with capes, wolves on t-shirts and a motel sign saying “Edward didn’t sleep here”. There was also talk about vampires and werewolves in the area. When we saw the fifth sign inviting us to have an ‘Unforgettable Twilight Experience’ it clicked. This is the home of the Twilight movies and Edward was one of the characters. Though from memory (we didn’t take much notice of the films since they were really not our cup of tea) we seem to remember that the teenagers in the movie were a bit, erm, trendy and not so “hillbilly” as the ones we saw populating the place in real life. One family we saw all had t-shirts on saying “Edward’s Fan Club”, except the dad. His, sensible, said: “Edward Who?”

We had a pretty good meal at one of the diners there and stocked up on food and fuel. And then decided to call it a short day since my knees were just on the border of giving me jip.

At Bogachiel State Park we got chatting to the Park Ranger who was about to go on holiday to the Basque country, a place that Peli knows well. And we had many an entertaining chat with fellow tourers Andy and Casey who had to bail out of riding the Cascades because the forest fires in that Washington.

Day 249 – September 16 : Back in the fog

We chatted to Andy and Casey and found out they were heading to Kalaloch Campground on the coast and back in the Olympic National park. It didn’t have hiker biker sites meaning we had to pay full price for a site. But if you can fit more tents into the site (max six people) we could share. This would mean that it would only cost $10 for a night instead of $20, something we can’t say no to.

The ride was through the country side and past a B&B that came direct out of a horror movie, you know rednecks, chainsaws, deep south and very remote. I was thinking about stopping to take a picture, but when I saw Cujo (Stephen King fans knows this dog) walking around the in yard that idea disappeared fast.

When we were around a mile away from the coast the temperature dropped considerably as the fog rolled in. The coast is covered in thick rain forest and with the fog you could imagine a monster running around to its heart’s content.

We arrived at the campsite to a note from Andy and Casey with a drawing of a bicycle, letting us know where they were. Hurrah! Dinner time came around and as we started to pull our kitchen out of the panniers, we got a surprise. Our kitchen wasn’t the biggest any more! A&C had three (yes, three) camp stoves (one was dying), a full spice rack, chopping board, colander, full-sized kitchen knives and big metal pans to prepare food in. It is hard to compete with two with years of experience in the industry. While eating, Joey arrived. Another Portlander! He was running late on his tour back to Portland and was trying to make up miles to get back in time for work.

This meant the share of the cost for the camping went down even further, as he paid his share in beer.

Day 250 – September 17 : “You’re not from round here”

We got up to a cold morning but the fog was moving away and letting the sun in. Everyone had a great sleep and never heard the racoon taking Joey’s panniers for a walk while emptying them all the way to the next door campsite.

Joey set off early, A&C left before us while we were still eating our breakfast. We had agreed if everything goes well we would meet at a campsite around 35 miles down the 101. A short day, but there weren’t any options further down unless you wanted to make it a very long day.

Outside one shop, where had our lunch, a car pulled up and the driver peered at us suspiciously. “You don’t look like you’re from round here” he said. And before I could respond “No, but you do!” he sped away shouting “You’ll be gone when the rain comes!”

As we were climbing up the hill out of Amanda Park we got flagged down by a lady in a car who told us that our friends had spotted us from the cafe she’d just left. She had therefore offered to relay the message to us that they were going to a campsite on Lake Quinault. Apparently our planned campsite had been closed for some time, so this sounded like a good option.

We found A&C in a beautiful site overlooking the lake. And we shared the cost of camping again even if it meant a bit of a squeeze for our 5.5 metres long tent.

We also found the two couples we’d met a few days ago in Sequim Bay State Park, who were having a rest day before they pushed on south.

We had a much needed “wash” in the wonderful and not-too-cold lake, while admiring the mountains around us, before we cooked up dinner alongside our fellow cordon bleu camp chefs while enjoying the sunset.

Day 251 – September 18 : Bailing out

A&C were heading towards Elma and then Centralia to catch a train back to Portland and we were heading down highway 101 along the coast to Portland. So we bid farewell and they set off as we still were trying to get up and ready.

The 101 wasn’t too busy and in places the shoulder wasn’t very wide but you could be seen on the long straights. Though, after two days it was getting tiresome to have the massively big logging trucks come by with their loud noise and high speed every 20 minutes or so.

From what we have heard from others the next bit south back to Portland would be on busy logging roads and through farmland, so nothing spectacular. And then there were my knees which didn’t get any better. They were really in need of rest at this point. I feared that if we pushed on they would go beyond the point of no return and I would need much longer time off the bike.

So we decided to limp on to Aberdeen, another 15 miles, and grab a bus to somewhere we could get a train back to Portland. A few miles outside Aberdeen we found an excellent RV park where the staff were very nice and helpful and we had unlimited hot water for our showers. Bliss. Peli was even offered a hairdryer by a family in a big RV as they were concerned that she not get sick.

Day 252 – September 19 : Back in Portland

Aberdeen was a run-down, depressed dump of a place, which the current recession had hit hard, though we did hear later it always was like that. I can really understand Nirvana and Kurt Cobain now. This place housed buildings which were one step away from being ruins. There were drunks and druggies walking the street and the shops were mainly 99 cent stores and junk food outlets. But there was no litter at all. The streets were so clean, a place like this in the UK would have plastic bags flying, McD wrappers hanging in the bushes and broken bottles all over the place.

One thing that is pretty amazing in the “cars rules the world” USA, all the buses have a rack for at least two bicycles on front. And everyone on the buses was happy to wait for us to load our panniers and bikes onto the bus.

We arrived in Olympia, the capital of Washington state, a stark contrast to Aberdeen, clean, green and rows of well-kept houses. We had to cycle out of town for five miles to get to the train station. This is a volunteer-run station, very well kept and recently renovated by train nutters. They could tell me which train number and which end of the train had the engine, but not sell me tickets or tell us at which end of the train we needed to put the bikes. We found this quite amusing.

But a quick call to 1-800-Amtrack we had tickets but no guarantee that we could get them on with all our panniers.

The train arrived and the train manager didn’t blink, grabbed our bikes and welcomed us on board.

At the next stop we were joined by A&C who we had joked could be fun to see on the train back, and lo and behold here they were. We spent two great hours chatting away back to Portland.

Day 253 – 292 – September 20 – October 14 : Getting ready for NZ

We have spend the last few weeks walking our friends dogs on some of the great trails around Portland in the balmy autumn weather we have had here. Rivers, mountains and forests were explored and we wonder who were the most tired when we got back, us or the dogs?

Cleaning the bicycles, tent and panniers took a day each. The bikes needed new cables, chains and cassette which the wondeful Cory at Seven Corners Bicycles supplied.

We also caught up with our friends Paul, Lena and Elo, went to farmers markets where we watched a pie-eating contest before we got swamped in fresh and yummy fresh looking food. (I had considered entering the pie contest, until I realised it the pies were pumpkin. And vegan. If they’d been pork pies I’d have been the first at the table!)

I have also spent a few moments tasting a few beers. It would be rude not to, when there are over 54 breweries in and around Portland alone. American ales are pretty good when you get over the cold and the nitro.

We think that we have found something that Peli might like to do when back in the UK, cyclecross. We went Cascade Cross with our friends on a very dry track, where Stephen sadly only went 3/4 of a lap before he had a visit from the puncture fairies. But it got the blood flowing in Peli and she clearly wanted to have a go. I’ll be her chef mechanic/cake quality checker/cheerleader. :)

So, after some enjoyable times in the USA, and some decidedly “interesting” ones, it is now time to move continent since autumn is now upon us. On 14th of October we will be flying to New Zealand to tour there for three months. Then we are hopping over to to Tasmania where we will spend a few weeks before sailing to Melbourne. We are then not really sure what and don’t want to tempt fate by planning ahead…!

Click here to see more pictures of our Washington State visit.

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More importantly, I was very pleased to see the updated features of my men’s jacket had made it to the female-specific design, such as the sensible (non-neoprene) cuffs and heavy-duty waterproof zip. And the staff at Showers Pass were as welcoming and helpful as ever. I’m really impressed with these folk and their passion for their jobs.

Next stop: New Zealand, and we understand they are no strangers to wet weather at present. I’m looking forward to putting my new Elite 2.1 through its paces to see how the DWR coating holds up. One thing’s for sure: no one will be able to argue that I’m invisible. The pink bird has landed!

ORIGINAL UPDATED REVIEW : It’s been a while since our visit to the Portland headquarters of Showers Pass to discuss my initial review of the Elite 2.0 jacket. You can read my review and about Showers Pass’ impressive response to my concerns, here. Kyle from Showers Pass gave me a replacement jacket (a men’s size medium rather than women’s large) to test on our ride down the Pacific Coast from Portland to California, and encouraged me to send updates from the road. So, as we’re currently taking a break in San Francisco (awaiting our first 4 July celebrations!), this gives me the perfect opportunity to update you on the new jacket’s performance.

Since Portland, we’ve covered almost 900 miles with nine days of rain. Most of this rain has been of the light, drizzly variety, with some heavy showers thrown in. A common feature of the rain – especially on the Oregon Coast – was that it was incessant (and yes, we had been warned!). It wasn’t unusual to wake up to the drumming of rain on the tent, pack up in the rain, ride all day in the rain, and at the end of the day, pitch the still-wet tent… you get the picture. Perfect conditions, I hear you cry, for putting new rain jackets to the test!

As I said here when I updated my initial review after our trip to Showers Pass, lots of the niggly failings of the jacket have now been sorted out: the cuffs are now simple eVent material with velcro fastenings rather than the neoprene which soaked up water; the main zip is of a more hardy construction; the collar (on the men’s medium I was testing) is more roomy and comfortable; the fabric overlap on the rear vent is deeper and water is less likely to be blown through it; my new hood is slightly more roomy so I can close the velcro around my chin (it’s still a snug fit, but it’s much better). The jacket also dries much more thoroughly overnight in the tent vestibule than my original one, due mainly to the neoprene-free cuffs. Thumbs up!

The main problem I’d experienced with the first jacket was with the waterproof coating – this had worn off far more quickly than usual meaning the rain soaked into the fabric rather than beading up and rolling off. I also suffered badly from condensation building up under the jacket, especially in the sleeves and across the chest.

So far, the new jacket has performed well in the waterproof stakes. Rain does bead up and roll off and has certainly not passed through the fabric. I’m also experiencing less build-up of condensation under the jacket, which is probably due to the fact that there is less of a temperature difference between the inside and outside of the jacket than we experienced in South America. I’m still slightly damp after a day’s riding in the rain, but not uncomfortably so. (A tip I’ve learned is to dry off any damp merino wool baselayers in the bottom of my sleeping bag overnight – they’re almost bone dry in the morning.)

So far, so good. I’m delighted with the improvements to the design and happier with the performance of the fabric.

One thing I would alter about the new version of the Elite 2.1 jacket is to do with the new fabric ‘gutter’ behind the full-length zip. I really like the new heavy-duty YKK Showers Pass now use for this closure, which is a big improvement on its predecessor. On this jacket, though, it’s stitched too close to the rain gutter which runs underneath the zip. Zipping up the jacket is usually easy, but when I try to unzip it I almost always get the teeth caught in the gutter, usually at the neck, and have to tug out the fabric, or deliberately hold the fabric away from the zip when unzipping. This could be easily solved by increasing the distance between the zip and the fabric gutter by a few millimetres.

We were recently discussing my original review with our friends Joth and Emma, who were the inspiration for our tour in South America – they’d done the Carretera Austral on their tandem a few years ago. We were reflecting on why the waterproof coating on my first Showers Pass jacket might have given up the ghost so quickly down there. We resolved that this probably had a lot to do with the extreme winds and dust/ash-filled atmosphere in those parts. I often wore the jacket as a windbreaker in dry, but very windy, conditions. The DWR surface therefore took a regular battering from very strong 30-120kph winds. Add to that particles of dust and ash from the ripio roads and the local volcanoes, and it’s probably not the best recipe for keeping your DWR intact. So, to lengthen the lifespan of your waterproof when touring, it might be worthwhile carrying a cheap, light windproof layer to use in such conditions.

In summary, I’m pleased with how the new Elite 2.1 has performed on the Pacific Coast (and I’m aware that no jacket is going to keep me 100% dry). It’s had quite a lot of wear since leaving Portland, and we still have a lot of riding ahead of us! I’ll be interested to see how the waterproof coating continues to hold up as we continue our journey.

Rating:
4/5 oinks for the jacket and 5/5 oinks for Showers Pass’ impressive customer service

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Highlights : Endless roads, Dinosaurs, Old Faithful, The two J’s, Glacier National Park and back to our second home in Portland.

Day 210-211 – 5-6 August : Route 66

The All American Road Trip started with yet another trip to the ER after we’d only managed to make it from Santa Fe from Albuquerque. First stop was Urgent Care with unusual symptoms accompanying Peli’s wheezing. The doctor said we’d better get her checked out by ER as soon as possible, so we spent another delightful night strapped to machines. Peli got the all clear after blood tests, an EKG and x-rays, though we – and the medics – are still not sure what kicked off her asthma. At 3am we found a crap motel with cigarette burns on the bed sheets and an air conditioning unit that made more noise than cold air. Yes, it was definitely time to get the heck out of New Mexico.

We jumped into the car after a few hours sleep and headed north in hope of better motels and lower altitudes. Peli felt OK in our little air conditioned cocoon, so there were not many stops to enjoy the views as we tried to flee the desert. The car told us that it was 94F (34C) outside and James (our GPS) told us that we still were over 2000m, as we drove past miles and miles of sagebrush.

We even managed to drive on the famous Route 66 and I later learnt that we even cycled a little bit on it too, so we can tick that off our bucket list :-) Oh yes, and I managed to see the Rio Grande that was featured in a TV series that my mum and I watched years ago.

We knew that we had to get up and over the mountains to get to lower altitudes, and the sooner the better. We went past 3500m – higher than either of us have ever been without the help of planes. At that altitude I could feel the lack of oxygen and Peli struggled even in the car. Luckily we got up and over the high pass and as soon as we dropped in height Peli started to feel better and could start to enjoy the views again. The Rockies are serious and beautiful mountains.

We did have another warmshowers host lined up for Durango, but Peli’s breathing being as it was, we decided at the last minute to cancel and press on. This also meant we didn’t get to stop and try the malt, brewery and chocolate shops in Durango.

In Montrose, Colorado, we found a motel with breakfast included and a nice, clean room with air conditioning. We were now down at around 1600m and Peli could breath better but the strong drugs were now taking their toll, making her extremely tired and achey.

Day 212 – 7 August : God explain this one to me

The roads in the States are full of “Historical Sites” ranging from old Indian site to a place the Europeans either built or killed the locals. One historical site had cave drawings which some numpty had used as a target for his rifle. These rock drawing has been around for thousands of years but because of this idiot they will be gone in a few more, as water seeps into the cracks caused by his bullets.

This part of the USA is the same whether you’re in Colorado, Utah or Wyoming – flat, altitude and desert. Though coming from the south to Dinosaur National Park, on the border between Colorado and Utah, it was like driving into a wall, even if we were nearly at 2000metres. A big lot of nothingness, then the continental plates have hit and pushed each other up, like two stacks of pancakes.

In the little village of Dinosaur we spotted a sign for a church, can you see the irony here…? This reminded me of a church in the UK which had an advertising campaign on quite a few billboards in London. One of them asked “If you could ask God one thing, what would that be?” And someone had written on the poster: “Dinosaurs?”

At the Visitor Center the car told us that if you stayed outside for more than 20min you’d resemble a well-done roasted bit of meat. It was 99F (37C) and very dry. As soon as you turned the car’s air con off you could feel the heat building up. So, we parked Peli in the cool visitor centre where she watched the welcome film on a loop again, again, again and again while I took the not air-conditioned shuttle bus to the dinosaur quarry. The bus drove up and through the many layers of dirt and rock that had been cracked opened by the continental shifts over a few years.

In the back of my mind of course I knew that the Earth was still moving around, creating the continents, before and after the dinosaurs. But I’d kind of taken it for granted that mountains were there before. So reading that this high desert used to be an ocean before the dinosaurs walked around here and around ten million years before the Rockies were created, put it all into perspective. The Park Ranger I talked to at the quarry said that looking at these bones made him feel humble every day. We’re just so tiny in the Earth’s massive history.

In Vernal, Utah, an ugly oil town, we found only full motels and hotels. But also little bit of green, not a sagebrush in sight and a campsite and again at a low altitude. We waited for darkness and the cool evening air, well let’s just say it was a bit colder, when we pitched the tent.

Peli thankfully had a good sleep in the tent, no reactions, and we left early before it got too hot in the morning and headed north. Car camping is so easy compared to cycle touring. You just throw your gear in willy-nilly and set off!

Day 213 – 8 August – Feeling small

The Flaming Gorge National Recreational Park was just utterly amazing to see, much smaller than the Grand Canyon but well worth a visit. Peli managed a little walk before heat and side effects of the drugs called for a retreat back to the car.

The USA is right in the middle of a drought and we were driving right through the high desert which is full of – nothing and sagebrush. You really get the feel of how big the States is, you drive for hours and nothing happens or changes as you clock up the miles. As far as your eyes can see there is nothing but the dead straight road that you are on and that went on for hours.

On our way into Jackson just south of the Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park we spotted a brown bear by the side of the road eating road kill. Sadly we were travelling to fast to take any good pictures. We have read in the park literature that you do not stop and take pictures from the car let alone get out to do so, because that makes the bears used to humans and also more dangerous.

Day 214 – 9 August : Old Faithful

The Grand Tetons are well worth a visit if you are heading that way, and if you like mountains you are in for a treat. Yellowstone is pretty too, but is teeming with tourists and mostly forested with few great views, whereas the Tetons is less so. When you enter Jackson and the park entrances it is made clear that this is wild animal country you are about to enter. Bears, bison, elk, wolves and mountain lions are among the dangerous ones you could see. Don’t think that elks are not as dangerous as the others, apparently they tend to run at the tourists, they get up to a fair speed and you probably want to avoid being run over by a 500kg angry Elk with sharp antlers. 

We arrived just in time to see the Old Faithful Geyser with 20min to spare. You could easy end up waiting over 90min for it to go off, but not to worry it is a proper tourist trap so there are restaurants, museum and souvenir shops to kill time while you wait.

We even got stuck in a herd of bison, they dictate when and where you can drive. They cross the roads when they want to and take their time doing it. It is sad to know that back when the first Europeans arrived here a herd would not just be 60 of them but hundreds of thousands. Back in the day they used to give rifles to the passengers on the trains to shoot at the bison, just for laughs, and didn’t stop to pick up the kills.

Peli was doing OK so we dared to camp at altitude again, and we found one of the few free spots in a campsite just outside Yellowstone. The sites in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks fill up before noon in high season.

Day 215 – 10 August : Scoobydoo

We arrived at Bannack, a ghost town left over from mining days, and now a state park with attached campgrounds.  There was indeed gold “in them there hills” but only for a short time before everyone packed up and left leaving the town empty. This town is ‘preseved, not restored’ with the houses exactly as they were when the last inhabitants left. It’s rather eery to wander around the intact houses and imagine the lives once lived here. 

Though, the ghosts may be old but they are certainly up to date with technology, because we enjoyed free WiFi at the campsite.

That night we got treated to one of nature’s best shows, a massive thunderstorm that came back for encores two times as it rolled up and down the valley. At one point the rain was only hammering on one half of the tent, hehe.

Day 216 – 11 August : Chez the two Js

We headed towards Missoula via another ghost town which was very remote and had all but fallen over bar a few of the houses. This place we so remote that we drove for an hour on tarmac, then 45min on gravel and then walked for 15min (with Peli clapping her hands and singing loudly for the benefit of the bears) right into the thick forests. How they found the gold there over 100 years ago and managed to go out and get the equipment to build the mine and houses there and then come back to the mine again, I do not know.

In Missoula we meet up with the two Js who we’d met a good few times on the Pacific coast. They took us for a Mexican and we had a good old catch up. Sadly both of them had come down with giardia (from water on the coast, not the Mexican meal) and had just about got over it.

Day 217 – 12 August : zigzagging

We headed up to Glacier National Park to drive the stunning Highway to the Sun Road. This is definitely a park we want to visit again someday. Stunning views, beautiful mountains and a fantastic road to drive and hopefully one day cycle. If we can we would also like to to a hike or two here.

American Adventure Cycling Association also has its headquarters here, so we had to swing by to say thanks for the help they have given us via twitter, website and emails. If you are ever planing a ride in the States do not forget their maps, they have over 41,000 miles of fantastic routes, campsites and cake stops. If you are in Missoula a stop at their offices is highly recommended: there is bike porn to look at at their newly renovated office, and free ice cream.

Day 218-220 – 13-15 August : Lewis and Clark

Driving out of Missoula we went over Lolo pass and clocked up 103F, let’s just it was a wee bit warm and we for once were happy to be in a car with air con. The pass then turns in to a valley which snakes its way along Clearwater river. From before Missoula we had been zigzagging the Lewis and Clark route, which also is a ACA route. Lewis and Clark you can’t miss out on in this part of the world. Other than pointing at things*, they found a way across the Rockies and the sierras before anyone else. *) every poster, painting and brochure about the Lewis and Clark Route, they were depicted pointing at things in the distance, a faraway look on their faces.

We had made up some time driving to Portland that we had time to have an early day and visit Mount Hood just outside Portland. A stunning mountain that just sticks up right out of the earth. We camped at Trillium Lake which lays below Mount Hood and had to pay $20 for a spot. Not too bad but not what we have become used to on the hiker biker sites we have been using. It’s funny how when you’re in a car you part with cash far more readily than when cycling.

After the scary upheavals of the previous weeks it was a delight and a relief to make it back to the safe haven of Portland, and our original warmshowers hosts Laura and Stephen, and their pups.

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