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

Waiting out the rain

I am sitting tight in Ohope NZ hoping for the rain to go away that has plagued me since I arrived in New Zealand. I am tired of riding and camping in the rain. Today it has been periods of some filtered sun mixed with rain falling from light sprinkles to heavy downpours with thunder and lightning. I have spent my time catching up on my internet stuff, uploading pics and talking to fellow campers. Most of the campers are Kiwis but almost half are from overseas like England, Germany and Australia. There are some others mixed in. I met a Czech couple, a Japanese woman, a French man and a few from Canada and the States.

I went for a short ride to the end of the peninsula today to look at the mouth of the bay. I could see Opotiki, my next city, on the other side of the water but it is a 25 mile ride to get there for me. When this rain stops I will head there. There was a nice golf course at the end of the peninsula and I stopped in at the club house for a cup of tea. The staff was bored because the rain was keeping sane people away, only a crazy biker rides up in pouring rain for a cup of tea. We had a good time chatting for about 45 minutes while I waited for the downpour to lighten up a bit. It did not let up so I just rode back to the camp in the rain and got soaked once again.

I am thinking about taking a bus out to the tip of East Cape because the heavy rains combined with dirt and gravel roads sounds like a bad combo to me. It is also about 250 miles to go around the Cape and that many miles of gravel make my teeth hurt just thinking about it. Cutting it in half sounds more doable to me. A bus from Opotiki to the tip is $40 which is a deal compared to riding 125 miles on narrow winding mountainous gravel roads right after a big rain storm. I will decide when the time comes. My other option is to ride over the mountains straight down to Osborne cutting the East Cape out completely. I would like to see the Cape so I need to mull over this for a few hours.