Cyclone Pam flyby at Morere NZ

Today it is Monday March 16th four days since I rode and it has been pouring rain for about 15 hours now due to Cyclone Pam. They also predicted high winds for the area where I am between Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in little Morere NZ. The wind has only been a bit gusty not the 75-100mph winds they thought were hitting here. There is still time to get some stronger winds before the cylone passes us but I do not see 75mph being possible. Give it 4 more hours and it should start to ease up. There are also breakers on the beach that are 25-30’ high according to the internet but I have not seen any pics or other verification for those big breakers. They warned surfers to stay out of the water but come on we are talking surfers here not scientists. There will be surfers out there for sure. I hope they all survive because a 25’ wave is huge when it breaks on you.

I have just been reading kindle books to pass my time. The rain is predicted to continue until Wednesday morning. I hope I can hit the road Wednesday when it lets up. That will be an entire week holed up in a little cabin. I will go stir crazy soon. Maybe I should not have read The Shining.

The almost dry creek behind my cabin is a raging river now. It has risen about 6 feet this morning and another 2 feet in the last hour. I have pics below to compare. I think it will keep rising for a while yet and may spill it banks before this rain is over.

The encouraging news is the 10 day forecast has rain in it over half the time…lucky me. My bike will be nice and clean and salt free I hope with the nice shower it is getting.

The storm is past now and we never got high winds. We are getting lots of rain though. For the next three days we can expect showers that the storm threw out as it spun just offshore. Lucky me! More rain! 21 out of 26 days here it has rained on me and that pattern will hold for the next week more than likely. I hope to leave here tomorrow or Wednesday if the rain lets up long enough. Some pics of a katydid and the dry creek behind the campground that has turned into a raging river by the heavy rain and a pic of the storm as it passed by New Zealand.

Gisborne to Morere Hot Springs NZ

It rained again last night and then at first light it stopped so I quickly packed up my camp. I waited a while in a cafe to see what the weather was going to do. Of course it decided to rain some more. With no place to stay in Gisborne because everything was full up I just took a bus down the road to Morere Hot Springs. I just wanted to get out of the rain and find a dry place to hole up until this relentless rain goes away. I rented a cabin at Morere. At least I will be dry for the next few days. The cabins are out of my budget of course but floating away in my tent just does not work for me.

Morere has a campground, a cafe and the Hot Springs. I already went to the Hot Springs this morning. There is a short walk then the pools are in dense forest with lots of birds singing and insects humming and making clicking noises. There were not many people around when I was there but as I left to go get some lunch a few cars were pulling into the parking lot. I will go back later this afternoon for another soak. I like sitting in the hot water when it is raining.

The big storm warnings have been down graded to showers with possible gale force winds on Sunday night and Monday. I may stay here through then or until the weather clears. I am tired of riding in rain and riding on a bus is not why I came here to New Zealand. The wifi I have is too slow for pics so they will have to wait. Now to read a couple books for a change. I had time so I did manage to add a few pics even though they are not very clear due to the rain. The clearcutting pic was in deep forest and the blacktop trail was a short trail I rode along the way.

Day off in Gisborne NZ

I arrived here last night and set up camp right on the beach in a nice campground. The ride from Opotiki was through a gorge with high hills on either side and a river rushing at the bottom of the gorge. The road slowly climbs up to about 700 meters or about 2100 feet then it is a glide down to the coast. There is a lot of wild country along the road and in some places a few sheep farms or cattle and dairy places. In general it is a good ride not too difficult with the slow grade. The worst thing is the narrow shoulder which disappears when you really need it on the blind curves. If you listen for the big logging trucks and stay out of their way you will be fine.

Here in town I made some food then just went to bed after doing some wifi. In the morning I did a tour riding all over town and talking to people and checking into the tourist information kiosk to see what I should see here. I enjoyed the day. Tonight I am having dinner at a fishing club that invited me to their club after taking to them for a while. All the campers in camp are friendly and entertaining. There is a surf and lifesaving competition here in Gisborne this weekend and it has filled the entire town's hotels and campgrounds. I have to leave tomorrow because I can not find a place to pitch a tent or a room. My plan is to ride fifty clicks down the road to a hot springs and stay there until the big storm approaching blows over. I am not planning on riding in the rain any more. I only took a few pics but here they are, the statue is Cap'n Cook's cabin boy discovering New Zealand or so the legend says...

Opotiki to Opape and then rewind back to Opotiki and on to Gisborne NZ

I arrived in Opotiki early since it was only a 2 hour ride from Ohope. I set up my camp and headed around town. The only things open were one pub, Slims, one hotel/restaurant/bar and one market. The main grocery was also open but it was six blocks away.

I ended up going to Slims which was a mostly Maori bar. They were watching the competitions happening in Christchurch for the Maori shows. I forgot the name of the shows so I will try to add that later. The local team got a rousing cheer when they came on performing last, just before final judging started. The locals were talking about all their friends that were in the performance and really were into the show. I enjoyed watching them as much as the show.

I cooked a cheap dinner in camp to make up for the cash I wasted on beers, then sat around talking to the other campers. I enjoyed it. There were some Danish kids and the usual Germans. The kids had been working on Kiwifruit farms and got fired because they were too slow. They told me the work is hard and they just could not keep up with the piece work to make minimum wages so by law they were let go. They complained endlessly about how difficult the work was and how demanding the farmers were. I got a kick out of asking them questions just to keep them ranting. I spent a while talking to a Kiwi guy too that worked at the American Army base down south.

In the morning I packed up and expected to catch the bus out to the end of the cape but the bus was not running. They told me it would run for sure on Tuesday. So I packed up and rode my bike along some bike trails and the coast road to get to Opape where I camped for the night.

Lots of good friendly people in the camp once again. Two Kiwis, a father and son, were fishing with a Kon tiki. That is a remote controlled torpedo that carries a long line fishing line out to sea from shore with 25 hooks on it. I helped them pull in two of the long lines and they caught some nice snappers up to almost 10 pounds, a lot of baby hammerhead sharks, some rays and some other local fish that I did not know the names of. They were enjoying the fishing. I spent all afternoon at the beach trying not to get cooked in the sun. After all the rain I will not complain about the sun. Then we sat around talking in the evening with a French couple, a German couple and the Kiwis. We talked about traveling and why people travel and where they have gone and want to go. I was the like an old salty dog while I was talking with the younger kids. It was entertaining.

This morning I packed up camp and will take the bus in a couple hours out to the end of the cape, assuming it is running today. There is even more heavy rain in the forecast for Wednesday night through the weekend so I will need to find a place to hole up out of the weather. I may take a bus out of the weather since it is such a large storm. We shall see.

The bus showed up with no room for me on it...I took a bus to Gisborne. I gave up on the East Cape for now. I just arrived here in Gisborne and it is already dark. I put my tent up and now am catching up on wifi. Gisborne is still in the rain shadow of the forecast so I may take another bus out of here Thursday. a few pics

Ohope to Opotiki NZ

WellI waited in Ohope for the rain to stop and this morning it was sunny but breezy. I packed and left camp quickly. The road took me around the estuary I have been camping near for the last couple of days and after riding about 30 miles I was on the opposite side of the estuary/bay, only about a mile away from where I started as the crow flies. I rode the rest of the way to Opotiki on good roads with light Sunday traffic. It was mostly rural farms or forested right up to the road side. I enjoyed the ride. I only took a few pics because how many pics of cows and sheep can I take?

I will spend the day here in Opotike at a campground and then tomorrow I am cheating and taking a bus out to East Cape. I had planned on riding the 300 miles along the coast but there is another storm from coming in three days and I would be caught out in the sparsely populated remote cape for possibly several days waiting for that storm to pass. I am hoping that by taking the bus and cutting it to 150 miles I will be able to finish it before the rain hits again. I could easily be wrong as the weather here seems to do whatever it wants to do instead of following the forecasts.

a few pics