Day 1: Waitiki Landing to Kaitaia

I present myself in the morning to Joyce, the proprietor of Waitiki Landing. Her eyes travel slowly down from my face to the tight cycling shirt-encased torso, linger on the clingfilm-tight lycra shorts and then on down....
"STREWTH!! You'll have to get those pins tanned up a bit!", exclaims Joyce, aghast at the sight of my very white legs. I explain to Joyce that I was issued with albino legs at birth and that those babies are going to remain lathered in factor 55 for the duration, so will arrive in Bluff untanned. "Well, just don't go cycling at night!", advises Joyce, "or you will dazzle the oncoming traffic!".

Waitiki Landing to Kaitaia is a pleasant first short stage and an introduction to New Zealand hills. The only technique for getting up these monsters is to slip the chain onto the "granny ring" and settle down to half an hour to an hour of grinding, with the feeling that the old ticker might burst through the ribcage, in a John Hurt/ Alien-esque way, at any moment.

I cover the 96 Km by 2pm and consider going further. But tomorrow's stage will be over Mangamuka Summit, with no settlement for some 25 miles. So I decide on an early first day's break and repair to the Mussel Bar for refreshments.

Kaitaia is the most northerly town in Northland and I check into the Kaitaia Historic Hotel, for the princely sum of $25, about 10 pounds. Claud is allowed in to share my room. I have a few drinks with Patrick, one of the locals, who was a guardsman in the UK and moved to New Zealand in 1968, when the Irish "troubles" started, thinking that being an Irishman in the English Guards might not be too clever at that time. He advises me on possible routes and adds "Whatever you do, don't travel alone, it is too dangerous!"

Distance today: 96 Km, cumulative 117 Km

written by

John and Claud on January 23, 2007 from Auckland, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Cape Reinga to Bluff

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