Gareth:
So you’re probably thinking what happened to the blog?
I’m looking at the last entry and that was about 2 weeks ago!
Poor Show, that’s no way to treat an audience. Like the time when I was younger. I used to watch a show called Quantum Leap. *Singinging the theme tune* “Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du Du DUU, Beau Beau Beau Beau Beau Beau Beau Beau Du Du Du Du Du Du Du DA DA! “Oh Boy”” And they just cancelled it for what felt like 2 years half way through a series, and then it was never the same when it came back on! One week Sam would leap back in time as a woman, then as a monkey, just to get the ratings up, and then you were always left hoping that the next leap, would be his leap home!
Well, the problem with this blog break is all due to Alice. You see from the last blog, you may remember I was downloading a game called Diablo 2… Yes? Well I was, and it finally came down and got installed. Alice started off avoiding Diablo 2 all together, then started watching me play Diablo 2, slowly created her own character and then totally took over and became what I call addicted. It’s an expression used when someone else won’t let you play the computer and you shout the abusive line. You’re a-dic-terd! She has created a character called Clive, he is a level 19 necromancer (Soon to be level 20 with the amount she plays it) Clive has the ability to summon the dead to help in his quests. So far Alice has learnt the ability to summon 3 skeleton warriors at a time. One skeleton mage and a ground golum! She also has hired some help called Floria (level 16) who has the skills of the cold arrow. Alice also loves a teeth spell that fires out 4 sets of knashers at any fiend Alice clicks on. I have now been reduced to what can only be called a spell caddy. As Alice / Clive (or Clice as I now know them) want a spell lined up. Clice scream at me to press the hot key lined up to the spell/weapon/curse/summon/poison and away they go smashing their way through another quest. Woe betides me if I line up the wrong item. She turns me into a newt! I got better.
So while I sit here, on the south island, coffee in hand, outside, in the shade so I don’t burn, with a beautiful view of some mountains in front of me, Clice is busy debating possible stratagems like that Golum scene out of Lord of the rings
Alice: “But, Master like’s us he takes us care of us”
Clive: “Master betrays you lining up the wrong spells”
Alice: “Nooo? Master wouldn’t, he’s just clumsy”
Clive: “ He is just tricksing you so he can get back on with his game”
Alice: “Master, tricksus me?”
Clive: “Yes… He has the precious… (Splutters… *Clice, Clice*)
Alice: “The precious, we must take back the precious.”
Clice: “We takes him to the seal colony, Yes, On a very long walk after an 80km bike ride so he is very tired, where he meetus Blubber the seal, We will pretend to get a picture of Master and blubber, but Blubber will be angered, then we takes the precious Mac, and the precious is ours. Yes ours! (Splutters *Clice, Clice*)
Well you’ll be glad to hear that I survived my encounter with Blubber the seal. And I still have the precious Mac. So I am able to write to you this Blog.
(Blue light flashes around Gareth) “Oh Boy”
5th Dec:
Gareth:
Today we are in a place called New Plymouth. It was moderately sized town with all the facilities the average person needs from a town. However, I think in New Zealand they class it as a city. The campsite was several km away from the centre so we able to have a nice walk along the harbour.
In the town we walked around got a feel for the place, then went to the museum. Saw some skeletons of old Moa birds, then went to the library for some good old free but slow internet.
Today was a Saturday, and today we had a special treat lined up for us, Santa was to make his way through town on his sleigh. Although his sleigh looked more like a converted long wheel based truck? And the reindeers looked more like a fat guy with a vest top driving a truck? And the snow looked more like sun? The streets were busy with children all screaming at a chance to see the big guy, so this gave us chance to dive into an all you can eat Chinese buffet where we could watch the show from the comfort of some seats. Here we ate what can only be described as an obscene amount of food! We got so excited with all the food choices that we filled our boots so much that we couldn’t tie the laces! I have never felt so full. It was like I had eaten a midget and they were given me a big hug from the inside. All you can eat was a bad choice for two hungry cyclists.
Santa went by, which I was shocked about cause he looked like the sort of fella that would love to have eaten at one of these places, and the place became rammed. So it was a good time to wobble out of there! On the walk back along the harbour, I had to rest a couple of times as my belly was weighing me down. Here the clouds cleared and we had our first view of the magnificent Taranaki volcano mountain. It was a splendid sight
Gareth feeling ill from the chinese and complaining that his eyes hurt so is wearing Alice's sunglasses
When we got back to the campsite had a cup of coffee to try and tame the beast, and spent most the night awake, off our tits on all the MGM, sugar, and caffeine. All you can eat Chinese… So good, it will make you hurt!
6th Dec
Today we set off on a bike ride to try and get to Opunake, but probably more to burn off some of the gargantuan amount of food we had consumed. Before we went I had to fix the bike. So I popped round the corner for some new screws in a hardware shop, while Alice packed up the bits and pieces. When shopping I came across a new pair of sunglasses! Way hay, my 3rd pair in as many months. These were special ones though. I came across these in the safety glasses isle. So not only are they tinted to protect me from sun , they have a polycarbonate cybernetic frame, living tissue over a metal endoskeleton T800. They have holes at the back of what can only be described as the ear rests so that I can tie string around them, so I can’t lose them! (Alice: I should just note here for any readers that may be particularly affected by the loss of a third pair of sunglasses, that Gareth has not yet even attempted to tie string round them so I wouldn’t get too attached to this pair either)
Gareth and his new shades
Terminator on the back of a bus
Alice wasn’t quite as excited as I was about my purchase, but I had spent so long choosing the optimum pair that she had packed up everything and we could get on our way. We decided to cycle down the harbour. Which was nice, but we forgot that there were them little barriers to stop cars entering, and our long bike wasn’t particularly that graceful at manoeuvring its way around them, so we caused huge tail backs of other bikes and people trying to help us by pushing and pulling our trailer Benny Hill style. After such a display we decided to head back onto the road. Where upon after about 10km of cycling the back wheel felt a bit wobbly. We weren’t quite sure what it was, but Alice noticed that the back tyre seemed a bit flat. I had a go at just pumping it back up, but after a couple more km it had gone back down again. Therefore, it was presumed that our extra weight from the eaten Chinese had cause a puncture. I tried to quickly fix it, gave Alice a quick crash course in bullemia and off we went.
The journey was around the coastal scenic route, but was clouded over, so we couldn’t see the volcano. We cycled half of it in the dry and half of it in the wet. We got soaked. The road was a bit of a rollercoaster. Alice was a bit crabby at the weather, as it generally got worse. She reminded me of the wicked witch of the west when it really rained. We dived for cover in Rahotu, but still had to finish the journey in the rain as it never really stopped.
7th Dec
We had to make our way to Wellington for the ferry on the 17th of Dec, and felt we were ahead of schedule, so as the weather had cleared up and we needed to do a laundry day, we felt like we would spend another day in Opunake. We went for a walk around a little lake and spent some time looking for the mountain, which still couldn’t be seen for cloud. So we went into the library and spent a couple of hours posting the last blog.
We went for a stroll along the beach at sunset, and then spent some time chatting to a lovely couple called Tash and Dan, who are dairy farmers, and were having their first holiday in 2 years. It was a good rest day, and with the weather clearing up put us back in the right frame of mind for cycling.
8th Dec
We woke to the perfect sunny day. The cold front that had been lingering over was felt like an age had moved on, and the sun had got his hat on. This must have perked us up so much that we managed to maintain an average speed of about 29km for the first hour and about 26km for the whole journey. The view of the volcano was spectacular, the roads were quiet and the cycling was fun. We had a few stops on the way in some towns for our regular jam sandwich (strawberry and rhubarb today) and drinks, but made it to Patea for about 3:30. I think we were the only people in this campsite, and it was reasonably cheap and not that touristy. That night we had sausage and mash, went for a walk around another lovely beach, and had an ice cream. This would be the last time we saw the lovely Taranaki Volcano mountain. Bye Bye.
Cycling round Mt Taranaki
Lunch (er, not sure why you've put these in Garf but very nice)
Having a walk around Patea
9th Dec
Alice:
We awoke with the best intentions this morning, got up and got into the camp kitchen for breakfast but we made the mistake of turning the TV on and discovering that our favourite programme ‘Australias biggest loser’ was showing. Half way through that the news man informed us that our friend Tomo Chisnel (the long boarder we’d met in Whangaroa) was going to be on the breakfast show so we wanted to watch that too and eventually admitted to ourselves that all this procrastinating was because we couldn’t be bothered to pack up! So we decided we wouldn’t, seen as we were still ahead of schedule, and stayed put in Patea for a good old blog day and lunch in the park.
Our tent in the campsite at Patea
Library cat
Lunch in the park
Another good excuse is that it was keith’s birthday today and it’s a big one, the big four-O, so we couldn’t possibly exert ourselves. Happy birthday Keith! Here’s a special picture of us in the park just for you.
10th/ 11th/ 12th Dec
Today was another hot and muggy day in New Zealand and we decided to get back on the road to Wellington. We cycled 70km to the Top 10 campsite in Wanganui, the road was pretty up and downy but there was a nice long downhill into the town. The campsite was really nice but was 7km out of the town centre, which is a bit of a pain when you’re on a bike!
We had showers and pitched the tent before catching the bus back into town to have some dinner. After a bit of traipsing around aimlessly, otherwise known as Gareth hunting for a bargain, we settled on an Irish bar that did pretty cheap but very nice burgers. When we got to the till we realised it was happy hour which meant 10% off so we ordered two jugs of beer to go with the meal.
The buses had stopped running at 5.30 so we had a pretty long walk back to the campsite ahead of us. We popped into Pak’n’save and bought mince pies and chocolate to help us on our journey home and they did the trick very nicely.
Never put bananas in the fridge
Catching the bus
As rain was forcast for the 12th we decided to stay in Wanganui and sit it out then get on the road again on the 13th. As it happened the rain only fell in the night so we would have been ok but we had a good couple of days pottering around the town, catching up with e-mails in the library and enjoying the sunshine. We also realised that the buses were free at the weekend, a little Christmas present from Wanganui public transport, which made Gareth pretty happy.
13th Dec
Back on the road again today and some good cycling in the morning. We tried to go for lunch at a lake called Lake Alice but couldn’t find it, I don’t think it was visible from the road. So I had to content myself with a picture underneath the sign that pointed to it. We continued through a place called Bulls where the locals had got a pit puntastic and there were signs up everywhere saying things like “incredi – bull’ ‘afforda – bull’ and forgivea – bull (on the church). What a bull I thought! When we arrived in Sanson after about 60km we were still feeling pretty good and discussed trying to make it to Foxton beach which was 40km away. However it was only once we turned off down the coast that we realised just how strong the wind had been blowing behind us because it was now blowing us off the road from the side. The sky was also looking pretty ominous so we reverted to the original plan and headed to Himatangi beach which still meant a 7km side trip strait into the wind and our longest day yet at 92km! We were pretty tired but happy because we made it just before the rain started and were able to watch it pouring down from the comfort of the TV room.
Signpost for Lake Alice
Very tired
We got chatting to a German couple in the evening about camping equipment and I showed them Gareth’s ‘indestructible’ spork which we had a bit of a laugh about. They were obviously moved by it though as they insisted that we take one of theirs as they had four which was very nice of them and means Gareth doesn’t burn himself when he eats any more.
It's been like that for about 2 months
14th / 15th Dec
After leaving Himatangi beach we made our way to Paraparaumu. The wind was still strong and we had to cycle on state highway 1 which, while not being nearly as busy as UK main roads, was still busier than we were used to and we were regularly passed by big logging trucks. There weren’t too many hills though and we made it in good time. We spent that evening and the following day at the Lindale motor park just outside Paraparaumu (don’t sound the last “a”) marvelling at the craziness of the campsite owner who seemed to have only a few phrases that he like to re-use and when he wasn’t busy locking us out of the TV room spent much of the time wandering about the place spraying weed killer. On the whole we wouldn’t recommend that campsite or Paraparaumu which is an awful place and doesn’t have anywhere with free internet but we did get a few good reduced to clear bargains in the local pak’n’save.
mmmmmm steak
16th Dec
This morning we ignored the black rain clouds at our peril and ate a leisurely breakfast then packed up in the pouring rain, which got me a little bit mad! Thankfully the sun came out long enough to dry the tent out and we got on our way to Paekakariki which was 10km down the road. We had planned to get the train into Wellington from Paraparaumu because you’re not allowed to cycle on the motorway into Wellington but they were working on the line so there was a replacement bus service to Paekakariki which we couldn’t get the bike on.
We arrived at the station just in time to hop on a train that was waiting there. The train people were pretty grumpy about the tandem and did a fair amount of cheek puffing and head shaking before finally ramming the tandem into the bike space and grudgingly letting us on.
The train journey into Wellington had some beautiful views of the coast so we arrived in high spirits and after ignoring more grumbles and one blatant attempt by the train guard to damage our tandem by ramming it against the door of the train we set off to find our hotel. Just as we arrived outside we heard a familiar voice across the road and it was Wouter, Vanessa and little Ella that we’d met originally up north. We exchanged numbers and arranged to meet later for a drink.
The people at the hotel Quest were really lovely and accommodating. They let us put the tandem in their conference room and showed us to the suite we’d booked that was really nice. We got showered and settled in before heading out to explore Wellington which I think is our favourite New Zealand city so far, it has a nice ‘vibe’! It doesn’t have free wi fi in the library though which gave us an excuse to have coffee and a cake in esquires.
Gareth found a friend
Amazing spotty library! Although it wasn't the library but it used to be
Funky sculpture
Later on we went for a cheap jug of beer then met up with Wouter, Vanessa and Ella for a B.O.G.O.F pizza in JJ Murphy’s Irish bar on Cuba Mall, a small quantity of alcohol, a good chat about the perils of cycling in New Zealand and a little dance before being asked to leave because they didn’t want children in the bar. All in all we had a good night and retired to the hotel happy, for our last night on the North island for a couple of months.
Here are a couple of statistics from our local Mathlete Gareth about our journey round the North Island
Gareth:
Hello people welcome to Cycle stats from NZ North island, sit back relax and take in some of the Top Thirteen mad stats I’m about to chuck in your face like a mad stat custard pie.
1) Distance covered on bike = 1530km (956 miles)
2) Total Time Cycling = 78 hours
3) Average Speed = 19.7 km/hour (12.3 mph)
4) Number of Days Camping on the North Island = 50
5) Number of Days Cycling on North Island = 26
6) Average Distance covered a day when cycling = 58.8 km (36.8 miles)
7) Number of bites on North Island = Approx 40 (Gareth) Approx 20 (Alice)
8) Number of Breakdowns = 10 (4 punctures, 3 loose chains, 2 gear and 1 front pedal breakage)
9) Number of Muesli bars eaten = Approx 150
10) Number of items lost = 6… 2 sunglasses, one favourite penknife, one shower gel, one shampoo/conditioner, and one toothpaste tube... All by Gareth.
11) Number of blogs written on the North Island = 7
12) Number of All you can eat Chinese buffets eaten = 1
13) Number of times hungover = 4
14) Number of tents confiscated = 1
Bye xxxx
