Day 14: Ride to Rotorua

April 21.


Distance Clocked: 90.964
Average Speed: 15.8 km/hr
Time Pedalling: 5:45:44
Total Distance (Since Palmerston North): 394.73

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Went over to the isite to pick up some rotorua brochures, saw Hannah there. We walked over to woolworths to get some groceries, afterwards had a chat with an english fellow doing a cycle tour himself, with his girlfriend. He had a bike custom built for the trip, said he was impressed that I was doing it on the bike I have. We were going in different directions, but maybe we'll see each other later on down the road. Said goodbye to Hannah and hit the road to Rotorua.

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It was a little tough until I warmed up, and not long after that it was nothing but flat road all the way to Reporoa, which is about 40km from Rotorua.

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On the way out from Reporoa, I passed a couple in their fifties cycling down the road, I cycled beside them for a bit and asked them if I was going the right way. They seemed astonished that I was going all the way to Rotorua until I told them I'd come from Taupo. I tried to assure them it really wasn't that big of a deal.

As I get closer I see some pretty cool steam vents:

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I had considered going to Orakei Korako, an isolated and supposedly very beautiful thermal park in between Taupo and Rotorua, but it's out of the way of the route I'm taking. Geoffrey also informed me about Wai-o-Tapu, a DOC thermal site in between Taupo and Rotorua. I looked it up on Google maps last night but for some reason it showed me that it was pretty much in Rotorua, so I figured Geoffrey was just wrong -- but sure enough, Wai-o-Tapu's just off of Highway 5. Unfortunately it's already 5:00, so they're probably closed, but I cycle over there anyway to check it out -- who knows, maybe I can camp near a hot spring!

Yeah, they're closed, too bad, but on my way out I do pass a really cool bubbling mud pool which I admire for a while:

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I have to climb long, but not too steep hills 15km or so outside of the city, but they soon drop off to some long falls. It's getting really dark and my bike light is slipping. It's so cold, partially from the wind that I have to put on my gloves and stick a handwarmer inside. I don't know whether it's just an optical illusion or if it's dark or what, but it almost seems like I'm getting pulled up some of these hills -- I must actually be going downhill, but that's not what it looks like! Edit: I am now of the opinion that what actually happened that night was I was actually going uphill, and was simply conserving downward momentum well while being aided by a very favorable tailwind.

I hear singing and chanting, I wonder if I'm passing one of those Maori village tourist attractions. I can't really tell.

I'm in Rotorua! It's cold so I stop into a BP for a hot chocolate to reward myself for getting there. Looking for a place to park my bike, I wheel around to the side of the gas station and see four girls sitting there with bags and blankets. I assume they're hitchhikers or something, and ask them if they know where there's a campground, and they say they're looking for one too. I tell them I've got a book with a list of campgrounds, and that I'll look one up and let them know after I grab my drink.

Turns out these girls are only 15, and are waiting out in the cold for a friend to go camping. They've all lied to their parents and told them they were staying at each other's houses. I stay and chat with them for a bit until their friend comes to make sure they're allright. Then I try and find the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park in the dark. It's $14, prices are going up the further north I go it seems. But they've got free hot pools, which is just what I can use. They close in 45 minutes though, so I'd better hurry and set up!

I set up in record time just as someone comes running over to see if I need any help, and take a dunk with a travelling american couple and a resident canadian, they talk politics and a lot of bunk I'm not really interested in listening to right now -- I mean, you take a holiday from the states and all you want to talk about is fuel prices? Ah well, to each their own.