Last day of the trip and a slow drive down the coast and then back to Hamilton before catching our flight home at 7pm. The objective of this trip was to have a quick look around the Coromandel to see if it's worth coming back for a longer holiday next year covering both the Coromandel Peninsular and East Cape.
After being woken by doors slamming at about 7am, we were up at 8 and then gone by 9am, again missing breakfast. The first stop was about half an hour away at the small town of Tairua. The main drag of the town in on the main State Highway 25, which is a kilometre or so inland. Most of the houses are then between SH25 and the beach, with some houses built on Paku summit, a volcanic peak at the waters edge. We headed to Paku Summit and did the walk up to the peak to get great views of the both Tairua Beach, Pauanui Beach, which is on the other side of the inlet and the respective townships. Although Pauanui is no more than half a kilometre across the inlet, to get to it, you have to return to SH25, drive 11 kilometres down the road and then 12ks back to the coast to get to the town. As Pauanui is the holiday spot for wealthy Aucklanders, so we thought we'd better go and have a look to see what all the fuss is about. And having now been there, we don't know. There is the waterways, which is where all the wealthy houses are with their private moorings and boat ramps, but beyond that there didn't seem to be very much to the town at all. A couple of small shops and virtually nobody about.
From Pauanui we headed down to Whangamata where we had a steak sandwich lunch in a small cafe, then on to Waihi and then the Karangahape Gorge. I didn't know anything about the Gorge, other than it was the way to get from Waihi back to Paeroa. On the way however, there was a walkway up the gorge to the site of an old gold mine. The walk was really beautiful and a really worthwhile walk. A torch is recommended for some of the tunnels you have to walk through, but we didn't have one, so the light on my camera had to suffice to light the way for us.
Unfortunately, the battery went flat just at the start of the longest tunnel, so we had to go back the way we came, but that didn't matter as we'd taken lots of cool photos and really enjoyed the walk that we did.
From there it was on to Paeroa, to have one of their world famous in New Zealand drinks, until we discovered how depressing Paeroa was, so we headed off for a wander round Morrinsville before heading for the airport and the plane home from where I am finishing off this blog entry.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Monday March 16th – Hahei / Lunch
A quieter day today, we just went for a drive down the coast to Hahei, which is a small town South of Whitianga. It's a small holiday home beach town, with a very small shopping centre, a cafe and a whole range of kiwi beach batches. It had a really nice feel to it, as most of the houses are still pretty understated. We did a walk along the beach and then went up to the lookout, which is also the start off point for the walk to Cathedral Cove. We took some photos from the look out, but didn't do the walk to the Cove because that would have got in the way of the start of lunch and we'd found a good restaurant in Whitianga when we were walking to get a muffin for breakfast, so were keen to head back there for a long and relaxing lunch, which we managed to achieve over a 3 hour period sitting outside on the restaurant deck beside the marina, with predominantly sunny conditions – all very nice and relaxing.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sunday 15th March - Coromandel Driving Tour
After the previous day's endeavors, I felt remarkably good this morning, so Anne and I decided to get up early, check out of the studio and head off on a tour of the Coromandel Peninsular north of Coromandel Town. The day was sunny with a light breeze (ideal riding conditions really) and the scenery on the way up the West Coast of the peninsular was stunning. The rocky coastline is very dramatic and the road winds its way along the coast, occasionally heading upwards to run along the top of the cliffs. The road is gravel all the way from Colvile to Fletcher Bay and it was interesting to see the road from a different perspective to that I'd seen the previous day. For a start, some of the ascents were steeper than I remembered them (probably the ones that I walked) and some of the descents seemed pretty scary, when you looked at the drop offs over the edge. I hadn't noticed it so much the previous day, the mist and rain tending to flatten the perspective and also when the rain was heavy, I was having to squint to see where I was going – that sounds sensible doesn't it.
When we arrived at Fletcher Bay (at the end of the farm track where I'd washed the bike yesterday) there were a group of walkers just finishing the track. “What's the track like”, I asked inquisitively. “It's a great walk, but those bloody mountain bikers have made it an absolute mud bath” came the reply....ooops.
The only way back from Fletcher Bay is to retrace your steps down the west coast of the Peninsular, so it took us about an hour to get back to Colville, from where we headed over to the East Coast to do the first 16km's of the ride that I had done. This bought back all the memories of those first few hills and just how hard they were to ride. The drive wasn't a whole lot better, with loose gravel, tight blind hairpins and an exceptionally narrow road. The three cars I met on the road were all near misses and the views at Port Charles and Stony Bay did not warrant the effort to get over the hill and make the return journey back. Tick – been there, done that, don't need to do it again.
We got back to Coromandel at about 3:00pm and headed for a small restaurant for our first food and refreshments for the day. By the time we finally ate, we were both famished and the Steak Sandwich and Spinach and Feta pie were a huge relief to our screaming stomachs. After lunch we headed over to Whitianga, where we are staying for two nights. The road over the peninsular to Whitianga is fortunately sealed, but it is also very windy. There is a 200k road bike ride that does a loop of the bottom part of the Peninsular and one of the sections is to ride over that hill. When I do that ride, that's one of the hills I'll have to prepare myself for. It looks like a real mission.
We are booked in for two nights at the Marina Park apartments. These are new one bedroom apartments in a big complex and although they are very nice, they are completely modular in their construction and the sound proofing is pretty minimal. When people leave early in the mornings, you here every door opening and closing (slamming). For Dinner we went to the local pub for some pub grub food – nothing flash, but nice enough.
When we arrived at Fletcher Bay (at the end of the farm track where I'd washed the bike yesterday) there were a group of walkers just finishing the track. “What's the track like”, I asked inquisitively. “It's a great walk, but those bloody mountain bikers have made it an absolute mud bath” came the reply....ooops.
The only way back from Fletcher Bay is to retrace your steps down the west coast of the Peninsular, so it took us about an hour to get back to Colville, from where we headed over to the East Coast to do the first 16km's of the ride that I had done. This bought back all the memories of those first few hills and just how hard they were to ride. The drive wasn't a whole lot better, with loose gravel, tight blind hairpins and an exceptionally narrow road. The three cars I met on the road were all near misses and the views at Port Charles and Stony Bay did not warrant the effort to get over the hill and make the return journey back. Tick – been there, done that, don't need to do it again.
We got back to Coromandel at about 3:00pm and headed for a small restaurant for our first food and refreshments for the day. By the time we finally ate, we were both famished and the Steak Sandwich and Spinach and Feta pie were a huge relief to our screaming stomachs. After lunch we headed over to Whitianga, where we are staying for two nights. The road over the peninsular to Whitianga is fortunately sealed, but it is also very windy. There is a 200k road bike ride that does a loop of the bottom part of the Peninsular and one of the sections is to ride over that hill. When I do that ride, that's one of the hills I'll have to prepare myself for. It looks like a real mission.
We are booked in for two nights at the Marina Park apartments. These are new one bedroom apartments in a big complex and although they are very nice, they are completely modular in their construction and the sound proofing is pretty minimal. When people leave early in the mornings, you here every door opening and closing (slamming). For Dinner we went to the local pub for some pub grub food – nothing flash, but nice enough.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Colville Connection
Despite the promise of fine weather all week, the day in Colville dawned gloomy and overcast, but with no wind. I hoped that the cloud would disappear before we started the race, but luck wasn't with me and before we even got the race briefing it had started to rain. The race this year had been limited to 1,000 riders and we had to line up on the start line in the time slot we hoped we would achieve. I had no idea, so put myself in the 5 ½ to 6 hour slot in the hope that this would be a worst case scenario.
We started in light rain at a gentle pace behind a support van on asphalt, nice and smooth for first 15 minutes. Within 2 minutes we were onto our first hill and passing a rider on the side of the road with a broken chain - “ill prepared” I thought conceitedly. The first hill was reasonably short and no problem, but the second one was a four kilometre climb and for some reason, despite 3 earlier visits, I had to stop for a comfort stop half way up the hill. After what seemed like an unfeasibly long stop I got back on the bike to catch up with the half of the field that had just ridden past me. As I got back on the bike, the heavens opened and we were drenched in a sub-topical down pour. By this stage, we were well up into the clouds and so the spectacular Coromandel views I had hoped to see weren't materialising.
At the top of the hill was a large group of riders who had stopped to don jackets. As I wasn't cold, I kept going down a steep and descent to Port Charles. Being somewhat cautious downhill, I was passed by a number of speed freaks down hill, which was a bit interesting particularly when they didn't bother to call out as they passed you. Gravel road descents require great concentration as once you're in a rut, you are kind of stuck in it, so you have to check well ahead to make sure that it doesn't all of a sudden turn to pot holes, or worse still head off the road and into a ditch.
From Port Charles, it was a steep hilly section over to Stony Bay. A couple of the sections were very steep and caused me to get off and walk. I was really struggling to keep my heart rate down and it was consistently in the 170's every time we hit a hill. It was also a pace that I couldn't maintain, so when the hills got very steep, I leapt off an walked because you can walk almost as fast as you can ride, but your heart rate drops a bit.
At Stony Bay, we got to try the new bit of the course that DoC (Department of Conservation) had agreed to us using for a one-off trial this year – The Coastal Walkway. Normally the route goes over farmland and is basically a walk for everyone as it is so steep. By the time I got there, 6 or 700 riders must have gone through and it was basically just thick running mud – not a good sign for DoC's trial. The first section was once again very steep, but being single track everybody was pushing their bikes. This is great I thought – 7ks of single track and we're going to have to walk all that way. Fortunately after a while the track flattened out and we were able to start riding. This was definitely the highlight of the ride, as the riding was brilliant and the views fantastic. We started off in a Manuka forest, but then the track opened out and we were riding above the tree line overlooking the dramatic Coromandel coastline. The drop-offs didn't bear too much thinking about, but the track was a good width and any technical bits were easy to spot and decide whether to ride through, or leap off and push through. I had a 10 minute stop to help another rider with a puncture, so that gave me a chance to catch my breath and have a bit of a break.
The descent from the Coastal Track was very steep and there was no option but to walk as it was just a mud slide. From there, it was straight back up another unridable trail pushing for 20 minutes to emerge onto farmland, which after all the bikes was just a thick clay mud track. The mud clung to everything – the tyres, the chain, the frame, you name it, it stuck to it. Gears wouldn't work, the mud was too thick to ride up hill in, and then when you went down hill all the mud caked onto your tyres made mud riding on mud similar to being on ice. It was here that I had my one fall, as the bike decided to follow the lay of the land and not my instructions and we careered off into a gorse bush for a heavy fall.
At the end of the farmland was Fletcher Bay, at the top of the Coromandel Peninsular and half way point for the ride. After spending 10 minutes in a stream trying to wash the mud off my bike, I headed off to complete the second half of the ride on the gravel road down the West side of the Peninsular. As I left, my Heart Rate Monitor clicked over 4 hours. 36Ks on a Mountain Bike on gravel in under 2 hours would be a huge ask, so my planned time for starting the ride was obviously too optimistic.
Again, my heart rate was getting too high and I stopped and pushed on some of the hills. Not always the steep ones either, sometimes I just felt like a break, so the constant mist and rain, were obviously taking there toll on my energy levels. Added to that, my bike was sounding like crap. The gears weren't working properly as a result of all the mud and it was making grating noises as I rode, which really got under my skin. I stopped occasionally and had a play with the rear deraileur and that seemed to help for a while. On top of that, my front forks seemed a bit loose. This must be because of the way I put the bike back together, but bumps were making a disconcerting knocking sound.
I rode the third quarter of the race alone – there was always somebody ahead of me and someone behind, but the whole field seemed very spaced out. During that time, I was passed by 3 ambulances both on their way out to collect the injured and again on their return journey. Eventually, I started to catch a glimpse of a group of about 8 riders ahead of me and I made a big effort to catch up to them. It took a while, as whenever I got close, the extra effort left me feeling exhausted so I'd either stop for a short break, or drop back again. Eventually I did catch them and the drafting effect of being with other riders made a huge difference. I sat quietly at the back and just cruised along. After a while, we came to a hill and the group spread out. As I was feeling OK, I moved forward with the faster riders and so road the next flat section in the front of the group (I didn't take on any leading duties). The next hill was the second to last and we were now with 10ks of the finish. I seemed to get more energy, my heart rate was in the 150's and I just cleared away from the group and then just picked off more and more people over the last few kilometres.
The last bit of drama was on the last hill, back on asphalt, when my bike refused to change onto the low cog. I was swearing, shaking the bike (which doesn't help at all) and bashing on the gear lever. Just as it eventually changed down, the guy 20m ahead of me fell off his bike (presumably for the same reason). I gave the cursory “you OK” as I went past him, but to be honest, I had no intention of stopping as he was obviously not seriously injured and I just wanted to get finished. As I came up the road to the finishing line, Anne was standing on the side of the road waiting and it felt amazing to see her big cheery grin. I finished in 6 hours 22 minutes in what is according to a woman I passed just before the finish, who had done the event 5 timers, the hardest conditions the event has been run in. Anne had been standing waiting for me since the 5 hour mark, so by the time I arrived was fairly cold, as were all the other spectators, and hence the noticeable lack of applause from the crowd. Anne said that the whole field that she had seen had come in individually and that everybody's bike sounded like it was about to fall to bits, so mine was no worse than the rest of the field. Some people were even wheeling broken bikes over the finish line and one woman was being towed in.
I spent the next half hour in a creek beside the car park up to my knees trying to get as much mud as I could off the bike. Before shoving it into the back of the car and heading off for a well earned shower.
For dinner that evening, we went to Pepertree restaurant in Coromandel Town, which was the same place we'd had lunch the previous day, for a very enjoyable and well earned meal.
We started in light rain at a gentle pace behind a support van on asphalt, nice and smooth for first 15 minutes. Within 2 minutes we were onto our first hill and passing a rider on the side of the road with a broken chain - “ill prepared” I thought conceitedly. The first hill was reasonably short and no problem, but the second one was a four kilometre climb and for some reason, despite 3 earlier visits, I had to stop for a comfort stop half way up the hill. After what seemed like an unfeasibly long stop I got back on the bike to catch up with the half of the field that had just ridden past me. As I got back on the bike, the heavens opened and we were drenched in a sub-topical down pour. By this stage, we were well up into the clouds and so the spectacular Coromandel views I had hoped to see weren't materialising.
At the top of the hill was a large group of riders who had stopped to don jackets. As I wasn't cold, I kept going down a steep and descent to Port Charles. Being somewhat cautious downhill, I was passed by a number of speed freaks down hill, which was a bit interesting particularly when they didn't bother to call out as they passed you. Gravel road descents require great concentration as once you're in a rut, you are kind of stuck in it, so you have to check well ahead to make sure that it doesn't all of a sudden turn to pot holes, or worse still head off the road and into a ditch.
From Port Charles, it was a steep hilly section over to Stony Bay. A couple of the sections were very steep and caused me to get off and walk. I was really struggling to keep my heart rate down and it was consistently in the 170's every time we hit a hill. It was also a pace that I couldn't maintain, so when the hills got very steep, I leapt off an walked because you can walk almost as fast as you can ride, but your heart rate drops a bit.
At Stony Bay, we got to try the new bit of the course that DoC (Department of Conservation) had agreed to us using for a one-off trial this year – The Coastal Walkway. Normally the route goes over farmland and is basically a walk for everyone as it is so steep. By the time I got there, 6 or 700 riders must have gone through and it was basically just thick running mud – not a good sign for DoC's trial. The first section was once again very steep, but being single track everybody was pushing their bikes. This is great I thought – 7ks of single track and we're going to have to walk all that way. Fortunately after a while the track flattened out and we were able to start riding. This was definitely the highlight of the ride, as the riding was brilliant and the views fantastic. We started off in a Manuka forest, but then the track opened out and we were riding above the tree line overlooking the dramatic Coromandel coastline. The drop-offs didn't bear too much thinking about, but the track was a good width and any technical bits were easy to spot and decide whether to ride through, or leap off and push through. I had a 10 minute stop to help another rider with a puncture, so that gave me a chance to catch my breath and have a bit of a break.
The descent from the Coastal Track was very steep and there was no option but to walk as it was just a mud slide. From there, it was straight back up another unridable trail pushing for 20 minutes to emerge onto farmland, which after all the bikes was just a thick clay mud track. The mud clung to everything – the tyres, the chain, the frame, you name it, it stuck to it. Gears wouldn't work, the mud was too thick to ride up hill in, and then when you went down hill all the mud caked onto your tyres made mud riding on mud similar to being on ice. It was here that I had my one fall, as the bike decided to follow the lay of the land and not my instructions and we careered off into a gorse bush for a heavy fall.
At the end of the farmland was Fletcher Bay, at the top of the Coromandel Peninsular and half way point for the ride. After spending 10 minutes in a stream trying to wash the mud off my bike, I headed off to complete the second half of the ride on the gravel road down the West side of the Peninsular. As I left, my Heart Rate Monitor clicked over 4 hours. 36Ks on a Mountain Bike on gravel in under 2 hours would be a huge ask, so my planned time for starting the ride was obviously too optimistic.
Again, my heart rate was getting too high and I stopped and pushed on some of the hills. Not always the steep ones either, sometimes I just felt like a break, so the constant mist and rain, were obviously taking there toll on my energy levels. Added to that, my bike was sounding like crap. The gears weren't working properly as a result of all the mud and it was making grating noises as I rode, which really got under my skin. I stopped occasionally and had a play with the rear deraileur and that seemed to help for a while. On top of that, my front forks seemed a bit loose. This must be because of the way I put the bike back together, but bumps were making a disconcerting knocking sound.
I rode the third quarter of the race alone – there was always somebody ahead of me and someone behind, but the whole field seemed very spaced out. During that time, I was passed by 3 ambulances both on their way out to collect the injured and again on their return journey. Eventually, I started to catch a glimpse of a group of about 8 riders ahead of me and I made a big effort to catch up to them. It took a while, as whenever I got close, the extra effort left me feeling exhausted so I'd either stop for a short break, or drop back again. Eventually I did catch them and the drafting effect of being with other riders made a huge difference. I sat quietly at the back and just cruised along. After a while, we came to a hill and the group spread out. As I was feeling OK, I moved forward with the faster riders and so road the next flat section in the front of the group (I didn't take on any leading duties). The next hill was the second to last and we were now with 10ks of the finish. I seemed to get more energy, my heart rate was in the 150's and I just cleared away from the group and then just picked off more and more people over the last few kilometres.
The last bit of drama was on the last hill, back on asphalt, when my bike refused to change onto the low cog. I was swearing, shaking the bike (which doesn't help at all) and bashing on the gear lever. Just as it eventually changed down, the guy 20m ahead of me fell off his bike (presumably for the same reason). I gave the cursory “you OK” as I went past him, but to be honest, I had no intention of stopping as he was obviously not seriously injured and I just wanted to get finished. As I came up the road to the finishing line, Anne was standing on the side of the road waiting and it felt amazing to see her big cheery grin. I finished in 6 hours 22 minutes in what is according to a woman I passed just before the finish, who had done the event 5 timers, the hardest conditions the event has been run in. Anne had been standing waiting for me since the 5 hour mark, so by the time I arrived was fairly cold, as were all the other spectators, and hence the noticeable lack of applause from the crowd. Anne said that the whole field that she had seen had come in individually and that everybody's bike sounded like it was about to fall to bits, so mine was no worse than the rest of the field. Some people were even wheeling broken bikes over the finish line and one woman was being towed in.
I spent the next half hour in a creek beside the car park up to my knees trying to get as much mud as I could off the bike. Before shoving it into the back of the car and heading off for a well earned shower.
For dinner that evening, we went to Pepertree restaurant in Coromandel Town, which was the same place we'd had lunch the previous day, for a very enjoyable and well earned meal.
Getting There
Our first holiday since the break at Christmas is 5 days on the Coromandel Peninsular. There is a 72km Mountain Bike ride called the Colville Connection which I've entered,so that is the excuse for heading up north. We flew to Hamilton on the evening of Thursday, March 12th to give ourselves as much of the 5 days as possible. Getting a mountain bike onto a plane and then into the back of a small Toyota Corolla was going to be a mission, so I've bought a bike bag to carry it in. It's obviously too big to go in fully constructed, so I just have to remove both wheels, the pedals, handle bars and rear derailleur. I then lie the bike bag on the ground fully unzipped and put a wheel in each side, tape the handle bars and the rear derailleur to appropriate parts of the frame, lie the frame over one of the wheels and fold the other one over the frame, shove in padding as appropriate and then zip it all up – voila.
Friday was a leisurely drive up to Coromandel, stopping at Paeroa (we didn't see the L&P bottle, but everything in the town in L&P brown – very kiwi), Thames for brunch and then a long lunch in Coromandel, before heading out to Colville to register for the race.
Friday was a leisurely drive up to Coromandel, stopping at Paeroa (we didn't see the L&P bottle, but everything in the town in L&P brown – very kiwi), Thames for brunch and then a long lunch in Coromandel, before heading out to Colville to register for the race.
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