The day began with my hammock collapsed and me waking up on the ground. I was ready to leave the eel beach, in spite of how beautiful it was. The first 50km were relatively easy after the mess we went through yesterday. We had to stop at a Backpacker's on the side of the road for water, which we got out of a spigot attached to a tank in the back at the seemingly empty establishment. The water came out yellow at first, but it was water, which we needed very badly. There was a hellish climb out of Wairoa, but then it was relatively flat with the only obstacle being the wind. The land was sunburnt and it was very very hot.

Just outside of Nuhaka, a bubble that had been forming in my front tire exploded, ruining not only my tube, but blowing a gash in the tire as well. I was caught unprepared with plenty of spare tubes but no spare tire. The only thing we could do was hitchhike either to Gisborne or back to Wairoa to get it fixed, probably not until tomorrow when shops opened back up. There was no traffic on the road, it being Christmas Day and the worst day ever to need to hitchhike for a new tire. Finally after about half an hour a Maori family stopped, and even though there was no room for me in their car they told us they would make some calls and find us some help. They stopped at the first house down the road, and before I knew it there were kids on bikes and two more cares full of Maori people telling us to come, that they would take care of everything.

We walked our bikes to the house and were immediately introduced to every member of the Wesch family: aunts, uncles, cousins, everybody. One of the uncles immediately set about trying to find me a replacement tire. He measured my wheel and was off. A mom or an aunt made sure we had shade, cold water, and juice to drink. Then when she found out we hadn't had a proper lunch, she spread a huge Christmas feast before us. There was a roast ham, fresh fruit, potatoes, a mix of seafood, salads, cream buns, fresh bread, and shepherd's pie. It was so so delicious. The uncle got back with a rusty old 24" tire he had found who knows where in the field across from the house. He suggested it would "be just like a hot rod". I was dubious at first, but the wheel spun and held air, so we swapped out my 26" tire for the rusty 24" one. We strapped my other tire to Shad's pack and one of the girls ofered to drive us up to the top of the next hill, Morere Hill - a 15km unfriendly climb. I hopped in front and Shad and the uncle hopped in back with the bikes and she drove us nearly 20km to a lookout point at the top of a very long and ugly looking hill. I didn't stop thanking her the entire way up. Shad, meanwhile, got a wind blitzed tour from the uncle in the back of the truck.

Beautiful People

We stopped at a hotel, the first place we could find to use a phone. We needed to get a hold of our host Carol, who had remembered to give us her phone number but not her address. The hotel was closed, but I walked around back to find a private party going on and was able to phone her. Unfortunately she didn't answer! I knew she had mentioned Bushemere Rd and Matawai Rd, but no address. We learned Bushmere Rd was close and set off, hoping to get lucky.

Finding a quick search down a very long Bushmere Rd to be dumb and fruitless, we made for a nearby gas station, Star Mart. The Maori attendant Matt took pity on us and graciously offered to let us use his phone to first send a text, then when that turned up noting, to try a phone call even though he had very very few minutes left on his phone. When we still got no answer he even offered to let us stay at his place if we couldn't find anything else.

I was very thankful, but also getting exceedingly frustrated with our situation. I encouraged Shad to try one more bikeride down the road, looking for the intersection of Bushmere and Matawi Rd. 15 minutes in, I gave up. There was nothing left to do. We rode back tot eh Star Mart, defeated. I drowned my sorrows in a meat pie and we began to look through my Lonely Planet book for a hostel or a motorcamp for the night. Then when all hope had been lost, Matt cam cheering out of the store with Carol on the line! She quickly apologized and offered to come pick us up with her trailer! God bless Matt and God bless Star Mart! Matt let me celebrate with a free coffee.

I was so happy to see Carol pull up. We got to her house, a beautiful 10 acre sprawl up the side of a hill with all sorts of animals and fruit trees. They had a BBQ going and we soon had beer, sausages, steak, squid, salads, and trifle for dessert.

Carol