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| From cycling new zealand 2 |
Weather is, as promised, less than great this morning. No downpours just yet, but overcast and cold drizzle is not generally something wonderful to wake up to and have to break camp. At least I'm basically already in Taupo. The first order of business will be to replace my pedal(s). Since I'm not going to blow the cash on skydiving, and I did my Lake business in Turangi, I'm not sure that I'll really stay that long here -- Have a look around to see if there's anything interesting, maybe find an internet cafe, and then just shoot on to Rotorua, about 50k to the north.
It's a pleasantly gradual uphill ride into town, and I'm reminded a bit of the ride into Taihape. The difference is all the motels on the side of the road, and the Lake to my left, which is nice to look at after all despite the weather. A sign tells me that I'm on the "Thermal Explorer Highway," complete with a little glyph of a fire. That's cool, I was told there were thermal pools here and stuff, even though I thought that was Rotorua's claim to fame. I guess it stands to reason that the whole area is geothermally active though, considering the stuff I saw in Tokaanu, the volcanoes in Tongariro National Park just to the south, and again the fact that Lake Taupo was itself formed in a volcanic eruption.
I'm not in town yet, at least not what seems like a CBD, but I notice a little shopping center and decide to take a closer look to see if I can find a cycle shop. I notice an outdoor place towering behind the main shopping center, so I cut through because cycle shops tend to be near outdoor places in Wellington. The guy in the outdoor place points me to a cycle shop just down the street, and I pop in and take a look at the pedals. I buy some metal alloy pedals for $30, and the guy tells me they've got a little shop area where I can put them on. Actually the mechanic there offers to do it for me, but these pedals have the wrong kind of thread, so I'm forced to upgrade to $45 pedals (at a $5 discount). the mechanic advises me of a backroad to Rotorua which avoids a lot of traffic and some hills. Cool.
A little ways out of town the weather turns really bad, nasty headwinds make a small hill really intimidating, and I'm just not in the mood to cycle in this so I head back to town to see if I can find an icafe to kill some time till the weather's better (good luck, right?) I wind up paying $6.50 to soak in a heated public pool, which includes unlimited use of the steam room and sauna. I watch the families and kids -- never had a chance to observe kiwi "suburbia" quite like this before. Not sure what the policy is here with the steam room & sauna so I leave my swimsuit on. It's a nice warm escape from the cold outside.
The weather hasn't gotten any better and I'm still making decent time so I book into a backpackers. Urban Something Or Other. I've been really impressed with the quality of the hostels here overall, they're practically like resorts for backpackers. The irish guy behind the front desk, which is also a bar, is friendly and laid back and puts up with all my dumb questions with lots of "no worries." They've got $5 chili meals and I can't make myself dinner for that price, so I go for it. Over dinner and really cheap alcohol I have a nice long chat with Erin, a pink-slipped Wisconsonian interior decorator who lives in Seattle now, Hannah, from Munich, and an English fellow named David. Hannah's living in British Columbia now and invites me to crash there at some point. Apparently Hannah is considered a fancy name in Germany. Go figure.
Well, hope the weather's better tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to Rotorua. Goodnight.
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