Week Two - Auckland to Wellington

Two weeks in and we're still going strong, although the second week was not without incident by any means. We've had no end of tyre trouble, a lot of rain and a rather nasty run-in with a railway about 500m from our destination in Wellington...

Oh, and I think it's time for us to reveal that we have named our trusty steed "Tanya the Tandem" or just "Tanya" for short. Sometimes we call her "That Bitch", "You heavy ****", or various other obscenities....

Day Eight : Dec 8 Auckland to Ohinewai 88km

We had a very lazy morning after spending the night with Jenny and Steve in Auckland. Once we did get going though, the drive out of Auckland was pretty easy, although we did have to navigate a whole lot of traffic lights. Cruising along the expressway we got a flat, changed it in record time then continued on, but about 5km down the road the back tyre decided to tear, and the tube exploded. Big problem. With a torn tyre we couldn't just replace the tube, so we were stranded. We walked the bike to the nearest town off the highway which happened to be a little ghost town called Ohinewai on the bank of the Waikato river which used to be a truckstop on the old highway but had since been made almost completely abandoned by the bypass. We approached what we thought was a service station only to find it had a guy living in it and was guarded by some very mean dogs. He was nice though and offered to give us a lift in to the next town the next morning to buy a new tyre. We set up camp next to a boatramp and just as we crawled into the bivvy's the rain started. The service station guy came down a bit later with an old tyre that he'd found in his shed which we put on and would ride on in the morning. It pissed down all night until about the time we got up, when we awoke to discover everything was soaked - even our supposedly waterproof lodgings.

Day Nine : Dec 9 Ohinewai to Putaruru 103km

It was still raining (and did so all day) as we rode into Huntly to buy a new tyre. We got the only one the Honda dealership had and put it on. Headed east through some farmland and got to Cambridge where we found another bike shop and bought a better quality tyre. About 10km from our destination, we had another flat (still raining...morale takes a dive), so we grimly change the tube again. Ok, lets go...one...two...BANG - the tube blows out again - we realise we have destroyed the second tyre in as many days. Once again - stranded. Joe set off over the hill to see what he could see and a nice passing truck mechanic pulled up in his mobile tyre repair workshop (van) and offered to repair the tyre for us. After doing this, we realised the tube was still leaking (it had quite a hole) so he gave us a lift to Putaruru (only about 10km - not too lazy of us). We stayed in a hotel and hung everything out to dry with the heater cranked while we ate a big homemade spagbog.

Day Ten : Dec 10 Putaruru to Taupo 87km

After a nice refreshing and warm nights sleep we set to work fixing the bike up again. Unfortunatly Putaruru did not have a bike shop. With some grim determination and a foor knocking attitude we found a suitable tire in the local print shop. Oh what a tire, it lasted all of 87km. After setting everything up oncemore we had lunch and off we went to Taupo. Up and up and up. The bike fought us every inch and the hills did not help much either. About 10km out of Taupo we stopped in to see a thermal valley. There were some holes in the ground. There was some steam. WOW. we had to break in to see them. Fortunatly the chickens, a duck and a few peacokcs did not object to our trespass so we jumped the fence and help ourselves to a half hour walk and all the steam we could eat. A sneaky hour later and we arrived in Taupo. Then BANG!!!! 500m from the backpackers. 3rd tire down. Nothing much to do for it the a few beers and worry about it in the morning.

Day Eleven : Dec 11 Taupo to Waiouru 112km

Lake Taupo is a sight to behold. And we had most of the day to behold it. After finding a new tyre (we paid a bit more for one that wouldn't burst after a day) we set out in search of new lands. We followed the lake for around 50km adn then stopped for lunch and a quick photo sesh.

After reaching Turangi we started our final major climb for the North island. We rode up and up all the while with snow capped mountains ahead of us and lake taupo behind. At around 7pm we reached the peak and started on the desert rd. this involved 30 km of nothing. An ice cold wind was our only friend. We rode as fast as we could, trying to beat the sunset. Just as it became dark (around 9pm here) we pulled into Waiouru. Waioruru is a tiny town built around the local army base. We found a cosy little motel to warm our toesies for the night and recover for tomorrow, the next assault on our bodies.

Day Twelve : Dec 12 Waiouru to Bulls 110km

Nothing exciting happened today. Well, to be honest it was kinda exciting going down some big-ass hills, but other than that it was unremarkable. Well....ok..we did end up in a place called "Bulls" which we thought was pretty cool. We had a beer at the local, said hello to a local who showed us his new AC/DC tattoo and cooked our own dinner before camping under an almost cloudless sky. Yay.

Day Thirteen : Dec 13 Bulls to Wellington 155km (not 151)

Ok, so we weren't sure if we'd make it all the way to Wellington in one day but we set out in our usual tardy fashion and ended up stopping in a place called Levin to buy some pants. This took longer than expected and we in fact didn't leave Levin for almost 2 hours (after surfing the net, and general window shopping, etc). We had about 80km to go at about 3pm...and we put our noses to the grindstone. After giving Tanya a good lube-up she performed much better and was able to maintain those high gear ratios that we needed as we cruised along the coast towards Wellington. About 30km out we hit a very picturesque stretch of highway along the water's edge, but Joe was too busy trying to keep us alive (i.e. not stray from the 5cm of bitumen reserved for bikes) to see any of it. After this was a big climb which was pretty scary too (perhaps we should call it "Death Climb #3). The last 20 or so k's took us through some backroads to avoid the motorway and then up a huge hill and down another. We were almost keeping pace with the traffic as we cruised into Wellington. About 2km from the Backpackers in the heart of Wellington we turned onto a stretch of road skirting around a footy stadium. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have ignored the sign that said "This route not suitable for cyclists" but we pressed on.

Joseph stared in disbelief as his hands fell off. From them arose millions of tiny maggots....maggots....maggots.......... pop culture references aside, and to put it in simpler terms, we were riding along, Tanya was upright, and then she tripped suddenly on a railway track. We suddenly made good friends with the bitumen. Simon even gave it a kiss. With his face.

Unfortunately we didn't get the stack on film, but the camera was lucky to be alive after being attached to the handlebars at the time. We made sure we weren't dead, got the debris off the road, checked ourselves for puncture wounds, spokes through our heads or whatever, and walked to the backpackers a little sore. No major injuries, just some bruising (of body and pride).

Day Fourteen : Dec 14 Wellington to Picton 0km (ferry ride!)

On the fourteenth day, the weary travellers rested. We met up for breakfast with Clare from NZ Red Cross who gave us some stickers etc for Tanya and some clean T-shirts. Our old ones are dirty, you see. It was a very rare still cloudless day in Wellington and it really was quite nice. We boarded the InterIslander ferry at 2.15 and sank......a few local beers on the way to Picton, the gateway to the next half of our adventure : THE SOUTH ISLAND!

More beers ensued...then we wrote up our blog...then this happened....then this.....my brain hurts...

Love to all back home and abroad.

- J & S