Day 5: Waipoua River to Dargaville
March 1st 2014
Distance cycled: 53 km
Total distance to date: 295 km
No sooner did I write about not having rain than it started raining last night. Not too much, but enough for me to dart out of my tent and grab my laundry from the line. Jinxed it.
This morning I had my breakfast and a nice chat in the campground kitchen with Robert and a Kiwi woman named Penelope, who was on holiday with her 4-year-old daughter. The daughter was outgoing, vivacious and cute as all get out, and introduced me to her purple stuffed unicorn. I sat and drank my coffee with them and didn't leave the campground until 10am.
Leaving the forest required an hour of steady uphill climbing. I took it slow and it was actually a very pleasant ride. I passed Robert again as he was walking uphill and as I did, a pickup pulled over and asked if he wanted a ride. I was sure he'd accept one at least to the top of the hop, but he did not. I did not see him again for the rest of the day.
At 8km away from the campground, I had the choice of taking the highway or turning off onto a gravel road to see Trouson Kauri Park. I figured I'd seen enough kauris and I didn't fancy a ride on gravel, so I took the highway, which my guidebook said would be busier. In rural New Zealand, "busy" is a relative term. And since it was Saturday morning, the road was probably less busy than usual. I stopped for a rest and a mid-morning snack at the top of a hill overlooking the farmland.
Entering Kaihu, the trees were all evergreens and I felt as if I were back in the PNW. It definitely looked that way! It even began to rain a little, the kind of sprinkle you get back home. Very nostalgic for me.
Heading into Dargaville, the weather cleared up and even began to get fairly hot. The traffic picked up too, and I was glad when my route branched off onto a quiet sidestreet that took me straight into the center of town. But before I got there, I witnessed a cow conga line:
Where were they going? And how did they know to stay on the road? Silly cows.
Dargaville is a town with a population comparable to Olympia but feels more like Aberdeen. I had to wait at the grocery store for 3 people (2 of whom I had waited longer than) to buy lotto scratch tickets from the adjacent counter before the lady decided to come check my groceries. I spent a good chunk of time in a café drinking coffee - how I've missed good espresso and cafés with good atmosphere! And they had free wifi. I'll definitely be going there for another coffee before I leave town in the morning. Funny how I will freedom camp to save money (I'm camping in a park on the outskirts of town tonight), make food on a tuna cans stove and endure multitudes of big bites, but I'll turn around and spend $4 on a coffee drink. Priorities!
Tomorrow will be interesting. The route I had planned on taking down the west coast is no longer an option because the ferry I would need to take won't be running this week. Boo! It looked like such a nice ride. Instead I'll take highway 12 east and try to figure out a way into Auckland without having to take SH1, which absolutely everyone has warned me against. At the most I'd have to ride SH1 for 28km but for safety's sake it might be better to grab a bus for those 28km. One of the people who warned me against SH1 was a Romanian guy named Octavian (!!!) who cycled through the country for 3 months but recently traded in the bike for a campervan. He works in nature preservation/restoration in Trouson Kauri Park (the park I passed by today but didn't go through) and invited me to stay with him a few nights and come see the projects he and his team were working on. I politely declined as I want to press on, but did give him my email as he might be passing through Berlin this summer.
Another funny coincidence was meeting a Maori man in Dargaville whom I asked for advice on where to get coffee in town. Turns out he manages the campground where I stayed last night. And as I reflected, I realized I had seen him at the campground. He was also the guy who pulled over in the forest and offered Robert a lift. Small world! When you're cycling and getting somewhere takes all day, you're amazed when you see someone again who you think must be miles behind you. But in reality it's only a an hour or two's drive by car to the next town. Anyway, he was right about the coffee.
posted by Kyla @ 19:48
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home