aeonhunterinnz

Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
I stand at the beginning of a great adventure. In two days I end my Australian holiday and journey into the heart of New Zealand. I'm a bit afraid of the challenges ahead of me. Up until today I have only looked on with excited anticipation. Now, surrounded by the cultivated Wilderness of the Royal Botanic Gardens I am beginning to dread the true Wilderness. I worry that I won't be able to make it. I worry that my friendship with Shad will be tested to the breaking point. I worry that I won't find what I'm looking for; worse still, that I won't even be able to articulate it. What purpose has driven me to this great undertaking? What will push me forward when my physical strength gives out? Is it just wanderlust? Or am I searching for something more existential? How will I know?
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 11, 2009 from Melbourne, Australia
from the travel blog: AeonHunter in New Zealand

En Route to Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
Tonight's stay is in Auckland in the backyard of Kahu and Beca. I'll meet Shad there. So begins my great adventure. I don't know how to describe my emotions right now. It's a bit intimidating, opening yourself up to the Wilderness. I'll leave New Zealand a changed man, but I don't know yet what that change will look like. It's intimidating being on the verge of becoming something unknown.
I think part of my intimidation comes from recently seeing the stories of men following similar urges come to deadly ends. On the way to Australia I watched a movie about an Australian who died trying to be the first to paddle the Tasman. On Friday I saw a painting about 3 men who crossed Australia. The trip killed 2 of them. Now I'm reading Into the Wild, again ending in death. It's weird to know that this urge inside me, left unchecked, could kill me. That's a scary thought, eh?
This trip is an exercise in letting go. It's about letting go of fear. It's about letting go of mental constraints on my physical body. It's about letting go of my secret and simple affection for being clean. It's about letting go of a life lived within the boundaries of what society calls “Normal”. It's about letting go of the stress that has my back, neck, and shoulder muscles in persistent chains. As I let go, I'm counting on God, the Earth, and my relationships with others to catch me.
My dinner tonight was eaten without taste. Something gripped me so much that I couldn't enjoy the simple present pleasure of eating. How much less can I enjoy seeing my best friend and embarking on a terrific journey? It's an odd predicament, a frozen feeling. I must contemplate this.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 13, 2009 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: AeonHunter in New Zealand

Tuakau
Tuakau, New Zealand
At the Outset
Shad and Kahu
Tuakau (72km) – The first day of the trip was a long one. We had to wait until 4pm to start riding, due to it taking forever to get my bike set up and rented. Once we got started, it took me all of 30 seconds to make a wrong turn and have one of my bags fall off. Then we rode forever down Great South Road until finally, long after I figured we missed our turn, we found the street we were looking for. Too bad it took only a few km's for me to make another wrong turn, put us on the motorway, quickly find out way off the motorway, and end up again on Great South Road, the road we didn't want to be on anymore. It was too late to backtrack, so we just forged onwards.
This mess all happened after I didn't sleep and had very little to eat. I didn't find Shad when I got in. It was 1am and there was no sign of him where he was supposed to be, so I spend the night hidden behind some trees in a park. Then I got torrentially rained on as I walked to go get my bike. The day did not start off well at all.
The good news in all of this is that I did eventually find Shad.
Our First Fish & Chips of the Trip
Also, as we were enjoying fish & chips in Tuakau, a town we were never supposed to go through, an older woman by the name of Diane chanced by and struck up a conversation. After hearing our plans to camp in the countryside, she quickly invited us to stay in her home. We accepted. When we arrived she set us up each with our own spare bedroom, gave us clean towels for showers, made us tea, shared oranges from a tree in her yard and fed us homemade muffins. Then the next morning she made us breakfast! There was a reason we got lost after all.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 14, 2009 from Tuakau, New Zealand
from the travel blog: AeonHunter in New Zealand

Pirongia
Pirongia, New Zealand
Dec. 15, 2009
Pirongia (104km, 176km total) – Tonight is the 2nd night of biking. Shad and I are camped by the river just outside of a little town called Pirongia. The hammock set up is decent, but I've got to get better at the assembly .I'm worried the rain fly is set up too weirdly to keep me dry if it rains tonight. I hope it is. Shad and I made a dinner of rice & beans & carrot burritos. Not too shabby actually. Just finished eating and cleaning up, now we're both crashing hard.
Stealth Camp 1
It was a long day of biking today. We were trying to make up for lost ground after getting lost the first day. We had a strong headwind most of the way, so even though the terrain was gentle enough, it was pretty rough. A highlight for the day was the first 8 km from Tuakau and having a delicious ice cream in the shad after it. A lowlight would be the last 25 km. Shad was having a pretty rough go and had expended all of his energy. It took many stops and some nutella bread to make it here. Tomorrow we make for Waitomo Caves, and catch up with our itinerary. I'm pretty exciting to be going back to this country. It's absolutely beautiful.
First Camp
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 15, 2009 from Pirongia, New Zealand

Waitomo
Waitomo Caves, New Zealand
WAITOMO CAVES (40km, 216km total) – Somehow Shad and I have managed to lose each other. Our ride today wasn't long, but the hills outside of Pirongia were massive. He took the lead and kept it. A few of the hills were just too much for me and once I was forced to walk.
Stupid Hills
We hit a long downward sloping section and Shad took off. I tried to keep him in sight, but was getting a lot of pain my my left knee every time I pedaled. The pain got worse as I went on, forcing me to stop a few times to let it subside. I got to our turn-off down Waitomo Valley Road, expecting Shad to be there waiting for me. He wasn't I stopped there and wondered if he had missed the turn or taken it. He had the map, he shouldn't have missed it. After a minute a road biker came zooming from the other direction. I asked him if he had seen another biker up aead. He said he hadn't so I took this to mean Shad had made the turn.
I took off down Waitomo Valley, fighting through the pain in my knee. The road was gentle, but even so the pain made me stop and walk at one point. A local drove by and pulled over and we had a nice conversation. His son married a girl from Chicago and he was flying in today. He assured me Waitomo was very close. I struggled through to Waitomo Caves, expecting to find Shad there waiting for me at the I-sight. Not so. Now I'm here and I don't have a clue where he is. I've been waiting 4 hours now and still no sign. This was our destination for today, so I don't have any choice but to wait for him. Without a car I really don't have any hope of finding him. I really hope he turns up soon.
During the ride I began to think of alternatives to our itinerary. If my knee keeps acting up, there's no hope of me making it so far so fast. We could take an extra day to get to New Plymouth, making the rides a bit shorter each day. From New Plymouth it's possible to catch a bus to Wellington. We can then bus to Napier from there. That gives us a few more days to get around the East Coast as well. We would lose Taupo and the mountains, unfortunate for sight seeing, but fortunate for my knees. I'll have to run things by Shad when/if he shows up.
I hope he shows up soon. If he spends much more time out there on the road he'll be way to tired to go anywhere tomorrow. Where are you Shad?
WAITOMO PART II
Thankfully within an hour after I had finished my last entry I did manage to find Shad. He had been in Waitomo for almost two hours, just holed up in a different building where it was hard to see the main street! We exchanged stories. He had completely misheard me when I explained our route in the morning and had glossed over Waitomo Valley Road. He thought our route was the longer way around on the main highway. When he realized we were separated, he rode all the way back to where he last saw me to look for me before going on. He had a very long day of riding, going at least twice the distance I did. At least on his route he passed the Big Apple market and was able to acquire us some fresh fruit and veggies.
We then headed out to explore The Caves via a walk a few km's out of town. It was a great little walk, but the best part was climbing up into a cave opening and exploring what turned out to be a huge cave system that seemed to go on forever. To get back to town, we elected to try the trail since the road had been so incredibly steep to get there. It was a bit rough. We had to carry our bikes up and down a long set of stairs and over what seemed like a hundred fences (one of which I discovered in a most unfortunate way to be electric), but it was worth it in the end and was a largely successful reroute.
For the night we decided to pay for a campsite in town, complete with a hot tub, showers, and the opportunity to get dinner at Curly's Bar. A few beers and a couple of giantly delicious burgers later (mine had 2 pieces of steak, bacon, beet, tomato, onion, and sauce), we were both happily satisfied and ready for bed.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 16, 2009 from Waitomo Caves, New Zealand

Moeatoa?
Moeatoa, New Zealand
MOEATOA? (62km, 278km total) - Today was the best day of the trip yet. We had great cycling.
The entire day was almost all downhill through a gorgeous mountainous countryside. We got our workout in though with a significant incline to start and end the day, plus a stiff wind coming into Marokopa.
Looking Up at the Land Bridge
Under the Land Bridge
So much happened today. We took four side trips throughout the day. First we saw a very impressive natural land bridge. Then we stopped and explored Piripiri caves. Then I was left speechless standing before the immensity of Marokopa Falls.
Marokopa Falls
Our last side trip was to the black sand beaches of Marokopa, a phenomenon I had never seen before. The dry sand looked like graphite and the wet looked like cold tar.
Lunch today was at the bottom of our longest descent at Te Anga Tavern. This bar was one of the best bars I’ve ever been to. They had great food (cheap too!), a wonderful and quaint interior, a nice deck, and the view was to die for. It was well worth the stop.
Looking Down on Marokopa
We weren’t sure where we were going to camp – just see how far we got by around nightfall and set up camp on the side of the road somewhere. We ended the day on a long stretch of gravel road stretching through a mountain farming valley. One farmer even let us ride through/chase a herd of sheep on our bikes. (Shad’s got a great video of it.) It was seriously in the middle of nowhere. One grizzled rancher who drove by us turned around and asked us where we were trying to get to and where we were thinking of spending the night. When he heard our plans, he pointed out a campsite just off to the side of the road and told us to camp there. The site was too good to be true – a miracle camp site. We had a metal shelter with a fireplace, outhouses, tress for me to hang my hammock, and it was right by a little river (where we each enjoyed a refreshing but cold bath). We built a fire, made some delicious pasta with tomatoes, avocado, and broccoli, and then somehow managed to consume an entire loaf of just purchased bread. I fashioned a bit of wire into an excellent campfire toaster and we had peanut butter, nutella and honey sandwiches. For the record: Nutella and honey is a perfect combination.
It turns out there's nothing in Moeatoa, not even a house. Just a miracle campsite and heaps of stars. Perfect.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 17, 2009 from Moeatoa, New Zealand

Mike's Brewery
Urenui, New Zealand
MIKE’S BREWERY, OUTSIDE Urenui (110km, 388km total) – Today was a long day without much to remember about the riding. We did manage to cover quite a bit of distance, the furthest so far, thanks largely to gentle terrain and long downhills. My knee has been feeling better and we almost considered pushing through to New Plymouth tonight. But those plans fell away as soon as we arrived at Mike’s Brewery outside Urenui. Even though the sign said closed, Shad wanted to check it out anyway. I’m glad he did. The owner was still around and gave us a free beer tasting of the four brews that they make there: a strawberry blonde lager, an ale, a lager, and a pilsner.
Fine Folks of Mike's Brewery
We also happened to meet three Americans who had been volunteering here at the brewery through W.W.O.O.F. Sara and Tracy were two beer and bike enthusiasts who have just recently completed a bike and brewery tour of the US (www.bikeandbrewtour.com). Paul was a traveller who happened to land at the brewery. The owner let Shad and I camp in the avocado orchard here and the five of us stayed up late talking, drinking, cooking, and eating.
Sleeping in the Avocado Grove
Today’s lowlight would have to be Awakino. After so long in the Wilderness, I was highly anticipating our lunchtime stop in this little seaside village. It turned out to be a complete hole. The tavern/hotel had bad food (my steak Sandwich was a strap of leather between 2 slices of white bread) and it was dirty and extremely unappealing. I was glad to make it a quick lunch.
Today’s highlight – definitely the brewery. Fine people. Fine camping. Fine beer. What more could you want?
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 18, 2009 from Urenui, New Zealand

New Plymouth
New Plymouth, New Zealand
NEW PLYMOUTH (36km, 424km total) -
Today we had a very short ride into New Plymouth. Paul was headed off on bike to Wellington the same day, so he joined us for about the first 30km. There was an unlucky attempt at a winery visit (it was closed for a private function), but otherwise it was a very uneventful ride in.
Once we made it into the city we ran into a family that had seen us yesterday descending Mt. Messenger. They had rolled down the windows and loudly cheered us on. There was a mother, father and three older teenage children. The family was in town for the big Fleetwood mac concert here. Everyone has turned up for this it seems; the city is teeming with visitors. So this family walks up and we start talking about biking. They ask us if our asses hurt and then the mom grabs a big fistfull of Shad's butt and exclaims how tight it is! It was hilarious. I think Shad kind of enjoyed it. He was glowing about it for a good half hour afterwards.
We tracked down our host Kim and headed over to her place. It was a big house full of girls, and I think everyone was sharing a bed with someone else except for me and Shad. She told us 10 people would be staying there tonight, including us, her, her sisters, their boyfriends, and some other friends of hers.
We unloaded our gear and had a beer and a shower. Then Kim took us on a driving tour of New Plymouth. Even though it was kind of a cold grey day, the views of the beach and the sea were still impressive. Shad fell asleep almost immediately in the back seat. When we got back to the house we had a bit of time to relax as Kim got ready to go out. She was taking us to a "Christmas" party her friends were throwing, complete with backyard cricket and homemade sangria.
Kim's friends were great. This was my second ever experience with playing cricket, and I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it. The first time I played it was a bit odd and boring. This time was much better, more laid back... better house rules... something, it was just better. Much partying ensued and I got more than a little drunk. I somehow received the nickname "Nestle" due to my persistence that it was one of the most powerful corporations in the world. Then we went out on the town, barhopping to three different places. Shad was dubbed "Droppy" since at one point in inexplicably dropped an entire beer on the floor. The last of these bars was a Celtic bar that didn't know what an Irish Car Bomb was, ridiculous. Downtown was a madhouse with everyone from the Fleetwood Mac concert. By the end of the night around 2 or 3 we were much ready for some good sleep.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 19, 2009 from New Plymouth, New Zealand

New Plymouth Day 2
New Plymouth, New Zealand
N.P. Day II (6km, 430km total) - We were woken up early this morning by Puppy - the tiniest, furriest, squirmiest little dog in the world. It was a very cute alarm clock. Shad and I made breakfast for whomever was around to eat (we ended up serving six). I made swedish pancakes and Shad put together an awesome fruit compote. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Kim
The girls were heading to the south island to be with their parents for Christmas, but were gracious enough to let us stay behind and relax a bit more before moving on. It was much appreciated. Kim told us she would be in Auckland when we got there, so we look forward to seeing our host one more time before we leave New Zealand.
We got packed up and headed over to our next couchsurf - Neil. When we got there, Neil and his wife were each engrossed in a book. He showed us where we would be staying but then went back to reading, telling us he was right at the climax of a great heroic fantasy story. We shared little bits of conversation and pondered the meaning behind our shared birthday (June 5th, 1985). All in all it was a very calm house. Light guitar music was on the radio, sun was streaming in the windows of their pink main room, they were both reading and I was sipping peppermint tea. It was peaceful and simple.
The two of them had prior family dinner plans, so Shad and I had the night open. We decided to o for a walk and see if we could find something to eat. As we started walking though, we saw how close we were to Paritutu Rock, a steep and spectacular hill on a point of the coast. We decided to climb it. It was very steep, but short and a fairly easy climb along the trail up. At the top we got whipped by a super strong wind.
Top of the Rock
It was fun to struggle against for a little while, but we were getting hungry so headed back down. The view of the sea at the top however was quite spectacular. We also talked to a couple locals and when we mentioned we were biking they asked about the Forgotten World Highway, citing how excellent it was supposed to be for biking. This was our intended route before our plans changed to include a bus to Wellington, and I feel a bit of loss not being able to experience it. Alas, my body will thank me and Wellington is almost too cool to miss out on.
From the rock the two of us walked into the CBD along the coast. The first food we came to was an ice cream van that only served one kind of ice cream. I got mine in the form of a raspberry soda. It was a huge mistake, as the mixture of raspberry flavored syrup, club soda, and ice cream was bright pink and disgusting. Shad's sundae looked and tasted much better.
We walked from there all the way downtown before finding a place to get a decently priced meal. We ended up at a restaurant next to the I-site and had a huge meal of salad, calamari, pizza, and fries. The calamari and fries were free from our waitress as for some unknown reason we were her "favorites for the night". The meal seemed alright, but was generally way too salty. I didn't feel right afterwards. It was like my insides were scorched by salt.
After dinner we checked out the movie "Avatar" at a local theater. It was a fantastic movie with a great story. I was amazed with how well it tied into the themes of the Parliament - indigenous people and care for the earth. I would recommend this film to anybody. Unfortunately the movie got out later than we expected it to and we had to hoof it back to our host's house, hoping that he was still awake. They told us they would leave the back door unlocked for us. The only problem was that the back door led right through their bedroom. We got back as fast as we could and luckily they were still awake (although I think both were in bed when we arrived). Neil was extremely gracious and forgave our late arrival immediately. Thanks again Neil.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 20, 2009 from New Plymouth, New Zealand

Wellington
Wellington, New Zealand
WELLINGTON (6km, 436km total) - We woke up early to make our 8am bus to Wellington. i still felt pretty gross from last night's meal, so I bypassed breakfast completely. The bus ride down was uneventful, with only a lunchtime stop in a small town called Bulls. I again didn't eat anything, just drank a smoothie. I felt pretty disgusting all day long.
Once we got into Wellington the first task was to find internet. We traced down a place I could access and checked our couchsurfing accounts, but none of our requests had come back positively. We begrudgingly checked into a hostel and hoped we would have better luck with tomorrow night.
From there we walked down to the national museum, Te Papa. We spent a good two hours perusing artifacts from New Zealand's past and present in the rather impressive museum. Then we picked up some groceries at the supermarket and went back to the hostel to cook. We made rice, scrambled salmon, salad, and borscht. It was a decent enough meal, but nothing fantastic.
After dinner we headed to an internet cafe to work on securing couches in the rest of our couchsurfing stops. Luckily we found one for tomorrow too and look forward to checking out of this hostel in the morning. As I go to sleep I feel a little better having eaten something, but still like I've got a bit of stomach rot from last night's meal. Damn the salt.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 21, 2009 from Wellington, New Zealand

Wellington Day 2
Wellington, New Zealand
WELLINGTON Day 2 (2km, 438km total) - Most of today we spent running errands around Wellington. Shad got his bike tire trued and his wireless internet fixed. I bought some replacements for the lost or missing S hooks on my panniers. We tried to get Shad's ipod fixed too, but that didn't quite work out, so we'll just wait till we get back to the States.
In the afternoon we met up with our host Lucy who has a flat right off the main drag downtown. She's a uni student here studying languages and primary school teaching. She let us hang out for a while then we all went out for malaysian food and a few drinks. It's been a rather uneventful day, but we got a lot of needed stuff done and I'm feeling much much better. The stomach rot has passed.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 22, 2009 from Wellington, New Zealand

Haumoana
Haumoana, New Zealand
Haumoana (15km, 453km total) - Wellington deserves more time. I've seen some of the street life and hit up the main museum, but I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. There wasn't enough time to visit the WETA Workshop of any of Wellywood (Wellington's filmmaking locations). There are gardens and scenic preserves left to explore. There's a buzzing arts, dance, and theater scene which has remained out of reach. A couple days is not enough time to do Wellington.
I did manage to buy an outlet adaptor that will work for my camera battery charger, so I can finally start taking and uploading some pictures of this trip. We also managed to run into Paul, the guy who biked with us a few days ago. He was just walking down the street and saw us with our bikes. It was good to see him again. We had a beer and were able to catch up a bit before we had to board our bus.
The bus ride was uneventful, but the bus was much more derelict than the last one we took. We did pass through a very impressive area of central New Zealand that was completely covered in wind turbines. They looked weird up on tops of the hills, and many of them dwarfed the hills they were standing on. We got off the bus at Hastings and biked the last 15km to Kahu's parent's House on the beach at Haumoana. It was dark when we got there and extremely difficult to see any House numbers. I think we managed to scare Kahu's mom when we came walking out of the darkness. They have a beautiful little bach here. I would love to have a little cabin like this to go away to for the holidays. Shad's letting me test out his tent tonight, and I have to admit it's pretty nice. Keeps the bugs away anyways. The beach is close and I can hear the waves just on the other side of the House.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 23, 2009 from Haumoana, New Zealand

Christmas Eve
Raupunga, New Zealand
CHRISTMAS EVE / WAIHUA BEACH (103km, 563km total) - For being Christmas Eve, today sucked. This has easily been the hardest day of biking on this entire trip. I'm wondering why I didn't think to take the bus all the way to Gisborne?
The day started out well enough. It was flat from Haumoana all the way to Napier. We got the earliest start yet, leaving before 8am. In Napier we found internet, a grocery store, and breakfast. The cafe we landed at was too expensive for my blood, so I went a few doors down to a bakery and got a muffin and something called a Christmas Twist. It was completely disgusting. Covered in currants, candied pieces of unidentifiable fruit, and tons of sugar and frosting. I couldn't eat it all, and immediately regretted my decision to be cheap. Yeck!
When we left Napier the road was still good for about 20km. We stopped in at a really cool winery with a unique patio, a mix of rustic and buddism and comfort. They charged for tastings though, so we didn't stay very long. When the road started climbing into the hills, it went from friendly to very very mean. We passed through a lot of steep gorges, an endless series of ups and downs. The worst was a breakneck decline with a 180 degree turn at the bottom, followed by a super steep incline up the other side. (I would later learn this is called the "Devil's Elbow".) We passed a nice set of lakes, but then immediately got back into the hills.
Towards the end of the day, as we neared Raupunga, there was a spectacular railway bridge over a huge gorge. This was the Mohaka Viaduct, the highest railway bridge in the southern hemisphere. We stopped for a couple pictures and a look at the map. We were aiming for Waihua Beach and there was only a few kilometers left in between. We hoped for one more ridge and then a nice downhill to the beach. Were we ever wrong. Seven steep hills later we were still in the middle of climbing. Each hill seemed to come out of nowhere and each was steeper than the one before. Our biking guide book somehow overlooked this section of the trip. If there is a biking hell, this is it.
When we finally did get to the downhill I let loose on the brakes and flew down as fast as I could. I was ready to be done. At the bottom I looked back for Shad, but he wasn't there. I waited and as the minutes ticked by I got more and more worried. Had he fallen again like he did coming out of Marokopa? As I waited there, cars began to stop. The first one told me my friend's tire exploded and he was on the side of the road. The second one to stop told me my friend had been hit by a car! Worried, I stashed my bike under a bush and went out to flag down the next car to come by. I was picturing Shad with a broken arm or a concussion or any number of ill fates. The first car to pass stopped immediately and offered me a ride to the top. They had been the first ones to stop and help Shad and had been sent to get me. When we got to the top Shad's bike was upside down and his hands were covered in blood. They had been the first things to hit the ground when he went down and gotten sufficiently torn up.
Shad's Hands
I changed his tire (which had indeed exploded) as he tried to clean and wrap up his mangled hands. He'd bent his saddle, but other than that and the tire the bike seemed okay. Apparently he had just hit a bit of gravel on one of the turns and couldn't keep upright. We then flagged down the next car to take me back to my bike and finally we were able to coast downhill the rest of the way to the beach.
At least the beach was everything we hoped it would be. We went around a hill at the bottom of the road and found a perfect isolated spot sandwiched between the river and the Pacific Ocean. There were even a number of logs stuck into the sand that I could hang my hammock from. I worked on securing those longs and hanging my hammock while Shad wandered the beach and took photos of the sunset.
Christmas Lights
Then we went to work. I made dinner while Shad prepared a fire. Our Christmas dinner was absolutely delicious: spiced tomatoes and tuna with mushrooms and vegetables, served with rice and tortillas. Shad insisted that we stay another night, but I pushed back. There wasn't enough water (the river was undrinkable), no shade, we needed to get his hands cleaned up, and I was eager to get to our couch in Gisborne. Our host is Carol and I have no way to get in contact with her should we decide not to show up. Plus we would never make it around the East Coast to Mt Maunganui by New Year's if we took another day.
Our Christmas Family Photo
After a bit around the fire, I went down to bathe and wash dishes in the river. The water was nice and warm and it began as a very pleasant experience. I waded in about waist deep and started washing the dishes. Then I began to feel a bit of debris moving past my feet and around my waist with the current. At first I though nothing of it. Then as I began to feel it more often I got freaked out and thought it was leeches. I got our real fast, but there were no leeches or anything that I could see. Telling myself it was just my imagination, I inched back into the water, not as deep this time and crouching for a quick escape. Again I felt the sensation of debris bumping up against my body. I reached for it and only found pebbles, but I kept feeling it, especially around my butt. I looked to my left and the headlamp shone on the water, and there beside me was a very curious 2-foot long freshwater eel! I moved out of that water as fast as I possibly could, cursing to all hell. I was not about to let an eel swim up my ass! I got dressed and finished the dishes from the shore. I went back to the campfire shaken and was very happy to end the night with a bottle of scotch, a warm fire, the sound of the waves, and no eels. Merry Christmas.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 24, 2009 from Raupunga, New Zealand

Christmas Day
Gisborne, New Zealand
CHRISTMAS DAY / GISBORNE (118km, 681km total) - Thank God for the Maori. The only reason today ended happily was because of the hospitable interventions of not a few Maori.
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
From the lookout we still had nearly 50km to go, luckily it was mostly downhill or flat from there. We would have never made it if not for the enourmas Christmas hospitality of that family. I was never so happy to pull into a town as I was to Gisborne today.
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
Her friend had brought her violin, which I got to play for a bit. Then Carol pulled out a guitar and sang some Peter, Paul, and Mary tunes. It feels good to fall asleep on her extremely comfortable couch. I am so so glad everything somehow worked out. Merry Christmas indeed.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 25, 2009 from Gisborne, New Zealand

Boxing Day
Gisborne, New Zealand
BOXING DAY / GISBORNE DAY II - I woke up well rested this morning and dug out some leftovers from last night's feast for my breakfast. Shad and I have decided to hang out for a day in Gisborne and Carol has agreed to put us up for another night. This will mean changes in our plans, cutting either the East Coast or New Year's in Maunganui, but the last two days have been horrible and we could use a break. Carol lives with her son Nick (20 years old), her partner Greg, and Greg's daughter Sam (19 years old). They told us so much about the property, I decided to have a look for myself.
The first thing I found was the plum tree. Did I mention plums are one of my favorite fruits ever? The plums on this tree are so so tasty. I ate at least 10 of them. Then I walked down to see the birds. There was a turkey, chickens, rooster, ducks, geese, and even a peacock. From there I wandered into the pig pen where the orange trees were. I asked the orange tree for an orange 3 times, shaking its branches each time. On the third attempt an orange dropped down. It was the most delicious orange I have ever eaten. I then wandered over to have a look at the pigs. The two of them were sleeping under the shade of a metal shelter. As I got closer they woke up and immediately noticed me standing there eating an orange. With grunts and squeals the two huge pigs got to their feet and charged me. It was terrifying, but I held my ground, remembering Carol telling me they were very friendly pigs. When they got to me they started nosing me, grunting. They had bristly multicolored hair and upturned snouts with mouths that were faintly human. They wouldn't settle for a couple of plums. They wanted my orange. "Orange! Orange! Orange! Orange!" I made my way past them to a nearby mandarin tree, which I shook, causing an avalanche of mandarin oranges to fall to the ground. The pigs gobbled them up as fast as they possibly could, sometimes stuffing as many as 3 in their mouth at once. I shook the tree again and made my escape.
In the afternoon Carol and Greg took us for a drive around Gisborne. We stopped at some great lookouts over the town, bay, and countryside. We even stopped at a store in town so I could buy a new front tire. We headed back tot eh house just long enough to pick up Sam and get the boat ready, then were out to the bay to catch our dinner.
Fishing was perfect.
I had a hard time believing my life as we sped across the crystal blue ocean under a bright clear sky. I love couchsurfing! I love New Zealand! Greg spotted a flock of fishing birds and pulled up just short so we could ready our poles for kahawai fishing.
Kahawai fishing is a pretty easy affair: find some birds, attach a medium sized shiny lure with plenty of hooks, troll through the birds.
Within seconds we al had kahawai on the line. They put up a good fight and are pretty fun to catch.
Within minutes we had enough for three dinners and had to leave before we caught too many. Before we did though, Greg taught Shad and I how to bleed and gut a fish. There's a great video of it.
The best part is when you rip out the still beating heart. Thank you fish for your lives so that we might eat.
After that we sped out past Young Nick's Head to try some bottom fishing for snapper. Nobody was catching anything though, and we couldn't figure out why. We couldn't figure it out, that is, until we saw the dolphins. While fish might not like dolphins, humans sure do.
Dolphins!
Our boat was surrounded by them and they leapt in the waves beside us. There was even a baby dolphin! It was absolutely magical. Eventually we just gave up fishing and headed home. On the way back in though, there was still a bit of magic waiting for us. We came across Moko, Gisborne's friendliest dolphin. He was huge and old and beautiful to behold.
Back home Greg smoke the kahawai and we rounded out our meal with oysters, pipis (a small New Zealand shellfish), and leftovers from last night. Then after dinner Carol and Nick initiated Shad to New Zealand by teaching him the meaning of a Tim Tam Slam. (I already knew.) All five of us did them while Carol videotaped. There's a video of it out there somewhere. It's so delicious. We have to find a way to recreate this in the states. It has been such an absolutely fantastic day. Thank you Star Mart. Thank you Matt. Thanks Carol and Greg and Sam and Nick. Wonderful.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 26, 2009 from Gisborne, New Zealand

Waioeka Gorge
Wairata, New Zealand
WAIOEKA GORGE (76km, 757km total) - We woke up to another lazy morning of picking fruit and feeding pigs. It's such a wonderful feeling to eat fruit you pick yourself, and Shad and I both swear to have yards with fruit trees if we ever own houses. Carol spoiled us by packing us both huge lunches. It was hard to leave her house on the hill.
Biking today was extremely hot. We decided to forgo the East Coast for the shorter route through the gorge. It pains me a little, since the East Coast is supposed to be THE most beautiful place to bike in all of New Zealand. Alas, next time. Lunch was two huge sandwiches on homemade honey bread: one with ham, half one with homemade salami, half one with avocado and salmon. We also had fresh oranges, fruitcake, and shortbread.
After lunch we were stopped by some cops who were handing out bicycle care packages and then passed a group of Brits who were doing a circuit of the East Cape. We then came to the completely deserted town of Matawai and had to search for a good 20 minutes to find a place we could fill up with water. The road had been gradually but consistently climbing all day, and we were happy for a bit of rest before tackling Traffords Hill, the 725m mountain we would have to cross before dropping down through Waioeka Gorge on the other side.
Swimming Hole
The hill was steep, but not too bad considering all we've been through. The gorge on the other side was beautiful: beautifully green and beautifully downhill. Our campsite tonight is right in the middle of the gorge, We've got a secluded spot away from the other campers, next to the river and closest to the fantastic swimming hole. Shad and I both went for a refreshing swim before cooking dinner. For dinner we had tuna, carrots, onion, and corn mixed with rice, spices, and avocado on tortillas. Delicious.
Waioeka Gorge Camp
My hammock tonight is in one of the best set ups yet. I'm nestled very comfortably in the trees with a slight swaying. I can hear the river nearby and the insects outside. It's comfortable and warm and I am happy.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 27, 2009 from Wairata, New Zealand

Opotiki
Opotiki, New Zealand
Opotiki (46km, 803km total) - Each day I bike I get more and more excited to lay around in California and do nothing. The countryside here is more than beautiful. It's magical.
But it is also unforgiving. There are hills everywhere we go, and when there are no hills there's a hard wind, always sure to blow right in our faces. Even today, which was literally all downhill, I felt like I was riding underwater because of how strong the wind was. Don't get me wrong, I'm having an amazing time, but biking everywhere is hard! I'm weary of roads and hills and wind and cars that pass too close.
That being said, today was an easier day. We started off with another swim before hitting the road.
Swimming Hole
We didn't go too far and made it to Opotiki by 2:30, despite a later start. We've checked into a nice hostel filled with Germans in the city center. There's not much to see here in Opotiki. We barely missed the big rodeo by a couple hours and everything in town is closed for the holidays. Dinner was takeaways from a nearby fish & chips shop, good but nothing too special. I had a fish burger, a curry roll, side salad, and 2 pineapple fritters for dessert. Shad had two 1/4 burgers and a Paua fritter. It's been a nice relaxing evening and I've finally gotten a chance to catch up with some writing.
The trip from here on out should be easy going - I'm glad.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 28, 2009 from Opotiki, New Zealand

Whakatane
Whakatane, New Zealand
Rainy Day
WAHKATANE (56km, 859km total) - It started raining last night and didn't really stop until we reached toady's destination - Whakatane. It was our first day of riding in the rain this entire tirip. Aside form making me extremely sweaty, my rain gear seem to work pretty well. Good.
Shad always eats muffins.
It was an easy day's ride in spite of the rain. The second half took su through a very pretty area called Cheddar Valley to Ohope Beach where we had lunch. After that we climbed our only real hill of the day before descending into Whakatane. I would say the only really interesting part about Whakatane is how you pronounce the name: fa-ka-ta-ne. It seems nice enough though, and there's a walk down by the river to the beach that I'm going to try to do in the morning.
Shad and I wandered around town for a bit and met an American widower who has come to New Zealand to start a new life. We had a nice chat with him and then went to see Sherlock Holmes at the cinema. I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on it. Now I'm back in the room we've got at the Whakatane Hotel. It's hot and humid here, too hot to sleep well even with the window open. Shad's out at the bars searching for the meaning of love and marriage. Tomorrow we'll hopefully be sleeping on the beach somewhere between here and Mt. Maunganui. At least that will be a little bit cooler. It's so hot!
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 29, 2009 from Whakatane, New Zealand

Otamarakau Beach
Otamarakau, New Zealand
OTAMARAKAU BEACH (42km, 901km total) - I woke up this morning in a bare room on the second floor of Whakatane Hotel, surrounded by my gear and my bike.
Tonight I'm laying down to sleep on soft sands with a roof of stars over my head and waves singing me lullabies.
I paid $25 for the ugly room, tonight's accommodations are free. Weird, eh?
We spent a long time in Whakatane this morning.
We packed up and checked out pretty early, but then took our time with break fast and spent a long time at the I-site taking advantage of their free internet. What a luxury free wireless internet is! I got lucky and even got to skype with Carolyn. I don't envy the snow covering the midwest right now, not even a little bit. After doing what we needed to do online, se started the day with a little sightseeing ride down along the river towards the beach. There was a really cool statue of a young girl out on the rocks near the ocean.
Statue of a Girl
There was beautiful weather today and the road was flat. Of course, since the road was flat there was an ungodly amount of wind which, of course, was blowing right in our faces the entire time. It made for very slow and very annoying riding. Just when I would get up a little speed and start feeling good about myself, a fist of wind would hit me and my bike would stop dead in its tracks.
We finally did make it to our destination on the beach. We pulled in just after 4 and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sand and the sun, busying ourselves with the beach's simple curiosities. Dinner came just before sunset and was a pasta dish with herring, cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, onion, and tomatoes. The herring was a little strong, but it was still pretty good. Tonight I've got my hammock set up on the sand, with my rain fly as a ground cloth. It's kind of a cool treeless variation. I just hope it doesn't rain... it shouldn't.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 30, 2009 from Otamarakau, New Zealand

New Year's Eve / Papamoa Beach
Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
NEW YEAR'S EVE / MT. MAUNGANUI / PAPAMOA BEACH (62km, 963km total) - The moon was bright last night, so bright I had to wrap my blanket over my head to fall asleep. It was comfortable though, sleeping on the sand. The corners of my hammock and ground cloth were pulled up a bit, forming a little bowl that served to protect me from the wind. We got an earlier start this morning, hitting the road by around 9:15am. We deliberately didn't have very far to go, although we weren't sure where exactly we were going to sleep.
Turkish to Go
Couchsurfing in Mt. Maungaui had fallen through and all the holiday parks and hostels were full up. our only lead was a holiday park in Papamoa that had told us if we turned up they might have a place fur us to sleep. We arrived there plenty early, just before 11:30am, and they did indeed manage to squeeze us in. We got half of a campsite on a glorified dirt patch, but at least it was somewhere. We set up our little camp and had a bit to eat at a place called Turkish to Go and a wander around the park. It was filled to the absolute brim, mostly with families in humongous house tents. I even saw one with a full-size refrigerator!
After lunch we had a choice: we could either ride our bikes down to Mt. Maunganui (where all the New Year's festivities were), or we could wait and ride the $10 bus down. The camp staff had told us Mauao was 20-26km away, but our maps showed us it was more like 6-10km. We didn't like the prospect of riding home 26km after a good night of New Year's Eve festivities, but we also didn't like the idea of waiting around until 9pm so the bus could take us. In the end we decided to ride in. It turned out to be a nice flat road of only about 10km, so it was a good thing we did.
Going Down Mauao
Mt. Maunganui was in full New Year's Eve mode when we got there. There were sops everywhere and the entire CBD was blocked off for pedestrians only. We had a couple drinks at two of the bars downtown before setting off to climb the 232m mountain at the edge of the peninsula which gives the town it's name. The hike up was beautiful, if a bit slick from all the loose gravel. The views from the top showed the whole town reaching down the beach. We could see Tauranga next to it, spreading back into the hills. Then on three sides were stunningly blue water with the odd island breaking up the horizon. It's views like these that make me want to live on the ocean and have a little sailboat to tool around the coast on. Also at the top we ran into this wild looking older man wearing a helmet. He proceeded to tell us all about how the UFO's told him that when the Americans pull out of Iraq the RUssians are going to start an atomic war and everyone except the people in New Zealand were going to die because the Pope is a Nazi . . . or something like that. Shad listened to him for a while then started asking him more probing questions about why he was going around telling people this for the last 25 years. Of course, once the questions came the guy couldn't be bothered and quickly headed off down the mountain. We spend a bit of time then actually enjoying the summit and then headed back down for more festivities. After a long haul down to the bottom we finally found a sign that had a map of the trails. Turns out we walked probably the longest possible combination of routes we could have possible walked! Oh well.
Looking out from Mauao
We then went back into town and found some food at one place, a beer at another bar (where Shad was shunned by the waitress for putting Bob Dylan on the jukebox), and another beer at another bar. The last one was an Irish Pub where we engaged in a few games of darts and then taught the bartenders what an Irish Car Bomb is.
We walked back into the festival area then, where they had the roads completely blocked off along the beach, people everywhere, carnival stalls and rides, and two music stages. It sounds great, and it was fairly good. The only problem was that there was no alcohol allowed on the premises except for two cafe/bars down on the far end, where a glass of wine was $10 and a single corona was $9. I sat down and watched the bands on the stage for as long as I could. The cover band was okay... but then they brought out this "musical theater" group (read: paid karaoke singers) who were fairly horrible. AFter listening to them I would have paid anything for a drink, so $9 beers we went.
We met a young group of Kiwis at the cafe who insisted that we bring in the new year with them. But at only 17 & 18 years old, I was keen to find a way to lose them in the crowd. That's exactly what I did with about 10 minutes to go. Shad and I were in the middle of the huge crowd in front of the stage with the countdown as the first seconds of 2010 on Earth ticked away. There were fireworks going out over the water and people everywhere. It was sort of a weird new year's. Good... but also odd.
New Year's 00:00
After midnight Shad and I went off to find some more affordable drinks. Our first attempt was at a Brazilian place where it seemed like all the women were having their own private party. Shad tried again and again to find a woman who would dance with him, but was rejected each time. (I blame the blood encrusted hands.) Our next attempt was a packed Irish bar that we closed down. There Shad at least had luck with conversation, meeting a pair of foreign girls: one French, one Spanish. Eventually we had to part ways and bike back to our campsite where the two of us squeezed into Shad's little tent (no place for a hammock). It's a bit too cozy in here and I'm glad I have my own place to sleep most of the time.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on December 31, 2009 from Mount Maunganui, New Zealand

Creepy Tree Cave
Paengaroa, New Zealand
CREEPY TREE CAVE ~ Paengaroa (32km, 995km total) - Today we had to wake up a lot earlier than we wanted to after a late night of drinking. Checkout time at the holiday park was 10am and we weren't in the mood for paying for another night. Luckily there was a nice beach nearby where we could laze the day away.
Sleeping Off New Year's
On the beach I used my hammock to construct a nice sunshade and took a nice long nap underneath it. I woke up later and went off to check out Papamoa's nearby shops and get some lunch at Turkish to Go, one of my favorite restaurants so far this trip. They have huge kebabs for not too much money. Then it was back to the beach where I got some reading done and scored a wicked sunburn on my left side. We finally hit the road about 5pm. We weren't looking to go very far, just cut down on some of the distance to Rotorua and stealth camp on the side of the road.
A little ways outside of Paengaroa we found a great spot.
Up a little incline along the side of the main road and behind some bushes was a huge mess of trees. There was a lot of heavy underbrush, but we found a way in and cleared out a nice little spot amongst the evergreens and the gorse.
Aside from the thorniness of the gorse, it was a pretty simple task. When we were done we had a little cave in the trees. The canopy and undergrowth were so thick they blocked out all the outside light. The trees were a bit creepy looking, but on the whole it was a solid campsite. For dinner we had a delicious mix of rice, beans, and vegetables.
Now it's time for some nice peaceful sleep.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 1, 2010 from Paengaroa, New Zealand

Rotorua
Rotorua, New Zealand
Rotorua (46km, 1041km total) - It was dark in our tree cave, so we slept in quite late. I think I made it till about 10:30 and woke Shad up around 11. The road started out fairly flat and there was little wind, but for some reason both Shad and I found it extremely difficult. I attributed it to sleeping in cursed woods. We finally made it to Okere Falls and stopped for lunch at a trendy little roadside cafe.
The last bit to Rotorua was decently flat, although the wind (as always) was blowing in the wrong direction. We rode by the airport where the skydiving was. We both wanted to go, if only it didn't cost $400 a jump. In town we spent some time gathering info at the I-site and then another bit of time in a cafe before finally heading down to our couchsurf at Deborah's.
Deborah has a nice little House to herself and her cats up in the hills on the south side of town. After spending some time meting her and her two cats, she took us in to the grocery store to get some food for dinner. Shad and I put together a delicious Chicken parmesan and made chocolate chip cookies and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. The cookies didn't come out quite right, but they were edible enough and tasted loads better with ice cream or dipped in milk.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 2, 2010 from Rotorua, New Zealand

Rotorua Day II
Rotorua, New Zealand
ROTORUA DAY II (20km, 1061km total) - I woke up this morning in time to go to church for the first time all trip. I rode in to go to St. Luke's Anglican church in town. It was a nice enough service, although the preacher's point was a bit muddled and theologically sparse. "It's a new year, so make every day count," about sums it up. They had communion though, which is what I was really missing, so all was good.
I rode back and found that Shad had spent the morning sunbathing and helping Deborah clean for her birthday BBQ party that she had tonight. We did a bit of laundry and headed out to see the sights of Rotorua. We rode our bikes into town and through the geothermal part of Kuirau Park. There were pools of boiling mud, hot springs, a couple of really hot foot baths, and the strong eggy scent of sulfur.
Foot Soak
It was pretty cool all together. From there we headed down along the shore of Lake Rotorua and ran into an open air market. We spent a little time checking out the stalls, including one that sold handheld "massaging" devices which sent small electric shocks through your muscles.
We continued our ride then down along the coast until we arrived at the government gardens and the Polynesian Spa. The Polynesian Spa housed Rotorua's main thermal pools, and Shad and I decided that was exactly where we wanted to spend the rest of our afternoon. The section we went in had 7 pools, some good for muscle relaxing, others good for your skin. They ranged in temperature from 36 to 40 degrees Celsius and were all fantastic. I think we spent over 2 hours there.
After our soak in the hot pools, we biked back to Deborah's to join her in celebrating her birthday. She had a bunch of her friends over and we enjoyed ourselves by eating huge quantities of food and drinking large quantities of wine, beer, and white russians. Shad really came into his own as a bartender and was producing all sorts of shots for us to drink. Shad, myself, and one of Deborah's friends Raymond staid up the latest, challenging each other to drink the other one under the table. I think we finally called a truce and each went off to pass out in our respective places around the house.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 3, 2010 from Rotorua, New Zealand

Tauranga
Tauranga, New Zealand
TAURANGA (72km, 1133km total) - I took full advantage of my hungover state this morning and slept well past 11. Shad was up a little earlier and hung out some more with those of last night's guests who were still around. We made a slow morning of it, eating breakfast, cleaning, and packing up. It was just after 2 by the time we left.
The road out of Rotorua was easy enough, although there was about 20min where I was deeply worried we had missed the turn to Tauranga. Luckily we didn't and were soon climbing into the hills. The hills were tough, but not extreme and for the first time on this entire trip I felt the wind helping me up a few of them. About 1/3 of the way to Tauranga we dropped into a massive gorge, only to quickly find ourselves struggling up the long & steep road on the other side. Shad hit some of the gravel on the side of the road as we were climbing and his bike slipped out from under him again. The wounds on his hands reopened and there was a lot of angry yelling into the wild. Fortunately it wasn't too bad of a stumble and we were soon able to continue to the top. At one point near the top it got so steep that I was pedaling slower than I could walk, so I got off and walked the bike up. I don't want to have to go up another hill like that again on this trip.
Cookie Break
After the hill the road was considerably easier and more fun to ride. It rolled through the top of a long plateau. We stopped on a side road with a magnificent view and enjoyed some of our poor attempts at cookies. The good news is that they tasted a little better when we were exhausted. From the cookie break it was largely downhill all the way to Tauranga.
We stopped for dinner in Tauranga before going over to our couchsurfing host Melissa's. I found another Turkish to Go and Shad had the New Zealand attempt at sushi. Downtown Tauranga seemed cool enough, just a single strip of shops, cafes, and bars on one side of the street with the open bay on the other side. We didn't linger though, just rode through. The only other thing of note that happened on the ride was that just before we got to Melissa's, as we were climbing a slight hill, I managed to ride straight into the back of a parked car. You have to watch out for those parked cars... they're wily.
Melissa's home had a bright green mailbox and a bright green garage door with kids toys, a kiddie pool, and a little swingset strewn across the lawn. Inside it had all the chaos you would expect in the house of a young single mother. Melissa was making us cookies and a little frozen pizza as we walked in. Once we had the gear off our bikes we sat down and enjoyed the pizza and cookies and got to know our host a bit. She has a 4yr old daughter who is currently on vacation with Grandma. She has dreams of becoming a cop and recently found the motivation and inspiration to get into shape and follow her dream. She's a belly-dancer and enjoys medieval combat reenacting. Fantastic. She invited us to watch the second part of a TV movie about Queen Elizabeth called "THe Virgin Queen". The first part had been on last night and they were showing the second part tonight. After showers, we did just that. I couldn't believe how nice it felt to just sit down and watch a movie at home. It has been a wonderfully relaxing night.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 4, 2010 from Tauranga, New Zealand

Gypsy Housetruck
Waihi, New Zealand
WAIHI (63km, 1196km total) - Today was a frustrating day. It started out well enough. We woke up and had breakfast with Melissa.
Melissa
After that she took us to the grocery store to buy some supplies for the last leg of our trip. She had to go too because she is hosting her daughter's 4th birthday party tomorrow. We were very grateful for the ride. When we got back I made lunch for everyone. Shad and I had toast and she had toasted sandwiches. Toasted sandwiches are an everyday item down here in New Zealand and Australia, as ubiquitous as meat pies. They're basically a griled cheese with 2 or 3 various ingredients. She had hers with cheese (not always included), capsicum (the down under name for bell peppers), and "capery things" (green onions, apparently). I first tried to find a frying pan to cook them like I'm used to, but Melissa didn't have a frying pan. So I discovered the grill function on the oven and cooked them in a baking dish. I'm not sure if I prepared them right at all, but apparently they came out "perfect". We finished lunch and said our goodbyes around 1:30.
The real trouble didn't start until we got out of town and after Shad had a second lunch of chicken vindaloo at a takeaway Indian place. About 15km out, just after a short break, my chain broke. Shad was in front of me and out of earshot, as I yelled his name at him and he just rode off.. I spent probably 20 min trying to find the borken pieces of link in the roadside gravel and at least another 20 trying to smash the whole thing back together with my pliers. Shad eventually figured out I wasn't behind him anymore and turned back to help me. Together we got the thing pieced back together as best we could, cursing ourselves that the one tool we didn't pack was a chain breaker - the one tool we desperately needed. Our pinch job worked, but I was scared it wouldn't hold if I shifted it around too much or put too much strain on it. So I picked a lower gear and was determined not to shift from it unless I really had to. Then we set off with me praying for forgiving terrain.
The chain actually made it most of the way. About 12km out from Waihi I noticed it breaking again, so we stopped and pinched it back together. Some nice guy noticed us and brought over two oranges for us to snack on. Then we set off to finish the last bit to Waihi.
Because of our delays we didn't make it to our couchsurfing host's house until just after 8pm. He was a real nice guy about it though. His name was Stuart and he was in his 40s, living in a housetruck he built himself while he was a part of the gypsy fair. Now he runs 3 businesses of his own: renting bicycles, renting motorbikes and guiding rides, and doing canvassing work (think boat covers and sunshades). Stuart lived a real "cruisy" life of independence and regaled us with stories of enduro motorbike races, old girlfriends, and life as a gypsy. He drove us into town to a Chinese takeaway place where he was friends with the owners and managed to get enough food to feed all 3 of us for only $10. We just finished having a few beers and a cup of coffee while watching a DVD of an enduro race he was in in Auckland and looking at pictures in various magazines that he had collected to illustrate his stories. Stuart's got a very interesting life, perhaps not one that I would want to live, but very interesting nonetheless. Tonight I'm sleeping up in a loft in the house truck and Shad's got a bed in the office/shed.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 5, 2010 from Waihi, New Zealand

Sailor's Grave Beach
Tairua, New Zealand
SAILOR'S GRAVE BEACH (72km, 1268km total) - We woke up early this morning because Stuart needed to run out early to do a job.
Stuart and the Housetruck
By 8:30 we were ready to hit the road. our first job was to go into town to check our couchsurfing emails and make sure we had places to stay in Thames and Auckland. Then I had a look at their little gold mining museum. There's still an active gold mine in Waihi that's been producing gold since the late 1800s. I'm glad mining techniques have gotten better. The old mine is a huge hole in the middle of town where a mountain used to be. The new mine is an underground mine that's not much more than an angled shaft into the earth. We get so many things from the material that's pulled out of mines... I wonder what the world would be like without any of it? Is a bit of rock more useful to us than plants and animals?
After the museum we had a breakfast at a place Stuart recommended called Banana Pepper - french toast with bacon and roasted bananas. Then we headed for the phone and the bike shop. I called the rental company and asked what I should do about my busted chain. They said find a chainbreaker and take the offending links out. I've also been having trouble with my front derailleur. They told me how to adjust it. With this knowledge I borrowed the bike shop's chainbreaker and and just pushed in the pins properly that had come out before. I left shortening the chain for if I had further problems. Then I played with the shifters a bit (riding my bike into a wall in the process). While I managed to improve it, I still couldn't get the bike to shift into third gear. I've been without it almost all trip, so I just let it be. After all this we finally set out for Tairua around noon.
I was making pretty slow time at the start. There was a hill and there was wind and I'm just plain getting tired of biking all the time. Shad wants to take the bus from Thames to Auckland instead of biking it. With each day I get a little more keen to agree to it.
We stopped and had lunch in the little surf town of Whangamata. I wanted to stay longer and was not happy to get back on the bike. A few big hills later we finally came into the last stretch to Tairua. We stopped for a bit at a gas station in the middle of nowhere 12km from Tairua. I think every single employee took turns coming out to have a breack and chat with us. We learned about a good spot to camp on the other side of Tairua 2/3 of the way up Pumpkin Hill. We also learned of the ferry between Cook's Beach and Whitianga that would save us over 30km and only cost a couple bucks.
The last 12km to Tairua took forever. The wind was against us and I was moving slow. When we got there we set about trying to find a campsite close to town. Although the Pumpkin Hill spot sounded nice, the idea of climbing up a hill then descending it to the beach, then climbing it again in the morning was not something that sounded too good. There was some bush down by the beach, but when we checked it out we found too little of it on too steep of an incline to be any good. There were too many people around to do anything more out in open (camping being prohibited on that stretch of beach).
So, stuck with no other options, we were forced to climb up Pumpkin Hill. Our turn-off was more like 4/5 of the way up than 2/3, but we made it alright. At our turn there was a sign pointing us dow a horrible steep road to Sailor's Grave beach. The ride down was fun, but I know already that tomorrow morning is going to be horrible. A little trail through the bush then put us out in an isolated cove on the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a little stream feeding down through some rocks into the ocean. I've got my hammock set up in the trees on one bank of the stream and Shad's got his in some trees on the other bank. A group of 4 Germans have a couple tents set up on a solitary grassy patch in the middle of the valley. Shad and I both washed off in the frigidly cold stream and had a dinner of pasta, chicken, tomatoes, and vegetable. It was alright, but lacked a good sauce or a strong flavor. Now the stars are out and the waves are singing me to sleep.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 6, 2010 from Tairua, New Zealand

Roadside Camp Outside Whitianga
Whitianga, New Zealand
OUTSIDE WHITIANGA (73km, 1341km total) - For a day where we weren't supposed to go very far, we sure spent a lot of time on our bikes.
Pretty Breakfast View
I took my time waking up this morning. It was one of the few mornings where Shad woke me up. The beach got a little busy in the morning with joggers and people walking their dogs and all that. We had our oatmeal breakfast on the beach looking out upon a beautiful view. Then begrudgingly I got on my bike.
Pumpkin Hill was indeed horrible, one of the steepest we've had to climb all trip. My bike wasn't really shifting quite right still, which only made it that much harder. As soon as I saw the top I gave up and just walked the last 50m.
After the morning's mountain climb, the rest of the ride to Haihei seemed relatively easy. We made it there quick and had lunch in town. I'm starting to run short of money, so I limited myself to just a chicken pie and a coffee. After lunch we set out to find Cathedral Cove. The trail started at the top of a huge hill which we had to bike up. There were heaps of people all over the place. It was about a 25 minute walk then down to the cove.
Cathedral Cove
Cathedral Cove is a natural land formation where two pristine beaches are separated by a huge opening in the cliff face. There were some impressive rock formations both on shore and in the water.
We finally got in our first ocean swim of the entire trip. The water was quite cool at first, but was incredibly refreshing. Shad and I swam out to one of the little islands and climbed around on it. To finish, we jumped off the top into the sea.
After Cathedral Cove we pedaled 8km over to Hot Water Beach. This is a beach where at low tide a section of sand is exposed where you can dig a hole and water from a hot spring will bubble up and fill your little pool. It sounds cool. The reality was a mess of people digging holes in the sand.
It was fun to dig, felt like childhood, but I found only a little bit of hot water and a lot of cold water. This made for a lukewarm, sometimes kind of hot experience. My hole kept filling back in with sand too, so I could never get it more than maybe 8" deep. It was neat though... and kinda fun.
After cleaning off the sand, we headed out to the ferry at Cook's Beach. On the other side at Whitianga we filled up on water and Shad bought some beer to go with dinner, then we biked north out of town. We had been hoping to find a campsite before the sun set, but that didn't quite happen. We had to go off into the hills before we found anything suitable. We've ended up on a short cattle road maybe 50ft from the road behind some tall grass and trees. We have to turn our headlamps off everytime we hear a car coming so we don't get discovered. Dinner was mac & cheese with tuna and veggies - it turned out quite deliciously.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 7, 2010 from Whitianga, New Zealand

The Wool Shed ~ Wilson's Bay
Kereta, New Zealand
THE WOOL SHED ~ WILSON'S BAY (64km, 1405km total) - It was a day of celebration, followed by defeat, followed by celebration, followed by defeat, followed by celebration.
We woke up early this morning and packed up to leave our stealth campsite before we were discovered. Well... I woke up early. I had to wake Shad up three different times before it finally stuck - and he had been the one who had insisted that we leave as soon as possible! I spent my extra time waiting in the sun where I found a paddock with two huge Clydesdales. They kept me entertained while Shad slept in.
Morning Entertainment
We got out early nonetheless and stopped for breakfast at a hilltop picnic area. There was an unusually high number of cyclists on the road this morning. When we got down to the coastal town of Kuaotunu I discovered why. Kuaotunu had a lovely little cafe with a great view of the beach and there had been some sort of organized bike ride out to meet there for morning coffee. It was so relaxed and peaceful in Kuaotunu, I wanted to spend the whole day there under one of the big shade trees, writing and drinking coffee. Shad wasn't so enchanted with the place though, so before too long we took off again down the road.
My bike made it up the first big hill out of town, but only halfway up the second one before the chain broke again. This time there was no hope in finding the missing link and as we were still without a chain breaker, I was royally screwed. Our only hope was hitchhiking. We walked our bikes up to the top of the hill and miraculously a little blue truck stopped when we stuck our thumbs out. Merv and Janice were an older couple perhaps in their late 50s who were out on a holiday. They offered to take us and our bikes into the next town, and when we couldn't find a mechanic there they drove us all the way to Coromandel Town. We couldn't believe our luck! Merv dropped us off at a garage where they just so happened to have a chainbreaker. We took out a couple of the links and pieced the thing back together. It seemed to work.
It started to spit rain as we made our way through town for lunch at an amazing little cafe on the edge of town that Lonely Planet had recommended. Driving Creek Cafe was fantastic. They had good music playing, very original and warm decor, and free tee with every meal. We spent a lot of time there, Shad on the internet and me writing while we waited out the rain.After it stopped, we spent a little bit of time at the shops in town before setting off to find a campsite. As we left town we still hadn't found a place to do the dishes and refill our water, so we hoped we would come across a stream or gas station or something on the way. We found a little river that we could scrub the dishes in, but the water looked too questionable to drink. Soon we were headed up our second to last huge hill of the entire trip. At the top we found a neat little clearing with all sorts of native plants and trees all labeled. Shad enjoyed digging through the large amount of garbage and bones he found back in the woods. It would have been a decent place to camp, but we still didn't have any water so we had to press on.
The little town at the bottom of the hill had nothing but a school and a few houses, so we dug in and set to climbing the last hill of any reasonable size on our entire trip. We stopped at a panoramic bit that we imagined was the top.
Celebrate?
We celebrated and took pictures and did all that sort of thing, only to find when we set off again that we were still a steep incline away from the actual summit. As we were climbing up that, my chain broke again! I was so angry! I just wanted to be done with the hills and this stupid rental bike. We tried pinching the chain back together with pliers, but the links had bent too much to hold. o in defeat, we had to walk the rest of the way to the top. I don't care what Thomas Friedman says, the world is not flat. In New Zealand there are still plenty of hills, and they suck.
At the top I tried again to pinch the chain together, and that time it seemed to hold. We tentatively set off down the hill, but about halfway down the road went up a little incline and my chain broke yet again. I was fed up. I chucked the chain in one of my bags, walked up the rest of the hill, and finally FINALLY coasted to the bottom.
The road came down to the beach at Wilson's Bay and there was a little farm house just where I stopped rolling. People were about, so Shad went to ask for water while I tried once again to pinch the chain back together. Minutes later Shad was back with not only full water bottles but also with Marcus, an avid mountain biker who just so happened to have a chainbreaker and some extra links. My chain was fixed within seconds and Marcus even pointed out a nearby campsite where we could spend the night. We bid him farewell and set off for the campsite, only to find Marcus pedaling speedily after us. When he caught up he told us that the farmer had offered to let us stay in his wool shed where we could be sheltered from the wind and even have a shower. We happily accepted.
Camp Wool Shed
The wool shed was fantastic, not much more than an old wooden barn with a few random shearing implements, a dart board (but no darts), and a gold painted fridge. It brought back a lot of old memories of my grandpa and his little hideout "The Corn Crib". We would go there with my dad and uncles and play cards when I was really little. Those are good memories.
Anyways, we got ourselves cleaned off in an outdoor shower cold enough to wake you up from the grave. Then we hung up our hammocks and made a delicious dinner of spicy salmon burritos. There was so much food we both had three huge burritos each. After dinner we headed over to the house to have a beer with our hosts. ob was the owner and farmer. He bred cattle on the hilly 1000 acres of land behind the house. His wife was from Germany and then there were Marcus and Garth who were visiting them. It was great conversation and we laughed and shared stories for a good while. These people were skilled at the art of conversation. I felt like Shad and I were just there to provide fresh material. Eventually we all grew tired and found our way to bed, Shad and I swinging to sleep in our hammocks in the wool shed.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 8, 2010 from Kereta, New Zealand

Gypsy Wagon
Thames, New Zealand
GYPSY WAGON ~ THAMES (36km, 1441km total) - Today was the best day of biking of the entire trip. It was a stunningly beautiful road, narrow and curvy with sheer cliffs on one side, blue ocean waters on the other, and pohutakawa trees lining the edges. It was also our last day of real biking, since we decided to buy those bus tickets from Thames to Auckland, spurred along by yesterday's constant bike mishaps. We knew we didn't have far to go, so we took a nice relaxed pace all afternoon. Short, slow, beautiful, and it being our last day was just the perfect cherry on top.
The morning featured a slow, unhurried start and a breakfast of toasted museli with honey and nutella. We got out riding about 12:30. We stopped just a little bit down the road at a rare open space with a restroom and a beach. I spent some time writing and Shad busied himself exploring the remnants of the ocean which had washed up on the beach. After a while I explored a bit as well, coming away with two mussels.
I cracked them open and Shad and I each had a little raw snack.
They actually weren't too bad... for being found on the beach.
We biked a little further then, just until we ran across a store where we picked up some cheese, crackers, and wine to go with the smoked fish that Rob gave us. Biking just a bit further, we then pulled off and went down to sit on some rocks to enjoy our quite decadent meal.
Decadent
After that it was pretty much a solid ride to Thames, with only a short bathroom stop to break it up.
As I was riding today I thought about two things. First I was reminded of my childhood and playing make-believe in the woods around my house and out at Grandma's. I also thought about this whole trip. It's ben a much more authentic New Zealand experience than when I was here last time. Even though it's shorter, we've run into and talked with so many Kiwis. Whereas last time I was mainly around other Americans and travellers the entire time. It's truly been a great trip. Today was probably the best bike ride of my life and one of my top 5 life moments altogether.
Tonight we're couchsurfing with Rosalie - an older woman who lives with her grown son Mark. Her sister and some friends were also in visiting from abroad, and Rosalie cooked us all a fantastic meal with fish, potatoes, salads, and zucchini fritters. Afterwards we staid up late drinking and talking with Mark. He seemed to not have much direction in life, spending all his spare time drinking and smoking. He spends $80 a week on each. He says he's on the verge of giving them both up, and for his sake I hope he does. he was a good storyteller though, and we had a nice long talk between the three of us. Now Shad and I are scrunched in a small gypsy wagon, hoping we wake up in time for our bus tomorrow morning.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 9, 2010 from Thames, New Zealand

Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
AUCKLAND (15km, 1456km total) - The trip is coming to a close. Tomorrow I'll turn my bike in and the day after that Shad and I will leave this country. It's gone by quick, and yet still been quite long.
I woke up early this morning when the sun streamed through the stained glass window of the gypsy wagon onto my face. I got up and had breakfast - porridge with stewed plums. It was actually pretty tasty. I did my best to wake up Shad and enjoyed the company of Rosalie and her overseas friend. Old women are funny people. They just sort of stop caring what other people think and will do and say all sorts of things you would never expect. Perhaps that's wisdom...
Funny Old Women and Us Without Faces
After we took our picture and said our goodbyes, we biked the short distance to the bus stop. The ride to Auckland was forgettable, except for a cute old man who kept forgetting where he was going and why he was on a bus. His family and kind passengers helped him remember. Is that the joy of family - that when you enter the mists of old age you don't have to do so alone?
We only made one wrong turn on our ride from downtown Auckland to Kahu and Beca's house. I'm glad we're staying with them again. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them before. When we arrived Kahu asked us if we wanted to go to the beach with his family that afternoon. Of course we agreed. Laying about in the sun always sounds like a good idea.
Tonight we didn't do too much, just spent some time around the house unwinding. We made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. The pancakes turned out very well, but we didn't notice the ants crawling all over the bottle of syrup (and some even in it) until much too late. I spotted them before pouring it on, but no one else had - just a bit of extra protein right?. I managed four and I think Shad put away seven or perhaps more. I'l need to remember I don't need to eat as much when I get home. This trip has been great for food. We could eat as much as we want and always know we were going to burn it all off. I have a feeling that won't be the case when I'm surrounded by cold and snow and the farthest I have to travel is across the street.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 10, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland Day II
Auckland, New Zealand
AUCKLAND DAY II (2km, 1458km total) - I woke up early this morning with hopes of getting so much accomplished, but at the end of the day I don't feel like I've done much at all.
I spent the night in my hammock in the backyard, which got its first real rain test, holding up fairly well I might add. The only tricky bit is adjusting the rain fly correctly. I was surprised to find Shad awake before me, but then again he slept in the tiny flat where two young children wake up early and make noise. I finished off the last of the pancake batter for breakfast and then worked on typing up my journal entries so I could finally make some posts online. This lasted until lunchtime, and then after that it was off to return the bike. I had hopes of going for a bike ride or doing some sightseeing or something, but the time and the motivation just slipped away from me.
Shad went with me to return the bike, since he needed to get a box to put his own in. Adventure Cycles is kind of a weird shop. When we got there, the owner Bruce put us to work packaging some shoes for him. This was in return for the box... I think. Then he drove us and the box back to Kahu's, giving us a shoebox full of slightly squished or moldy nectarines. He's an interesting character for sure.
I wanted to walk around and see something, and the mall was the only nearby thing I could think of. So Shad and I set off for a walk. At the mall Shad found some packaging supplies and I was disappointed in my window shopping. Malls are kind of stupid places, and I have to go every once in a while to remind myself of that. We had some slightly questionable mall food (my Chinese smorgasbord perhaps a little more questionable than Shad's Indian dish) and left. At least we got out for a walk, right?
We spent the night making things out of discarded bamboo we found in Kahu's bamboo grove. They're not extremely Kiwi souvenirs, but I reckon we made some cool things anyways. Then we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Kahu and one of his friends. I didn't get the blog updated. I didn't really explore Auckland. I didn't call our New Plymouth host Kim like I had said I would. I feel like this trip is ending too quickly, perhaps not too soon, but definitely too quickly.
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 11, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand

Qantas Flight #25
Los Angeles, United States
QANTAS FLIGHT #25 ~ BETWEEN PAPEETE & HONALULU - It's over. I'm on the plan and it's all over. The last time I was on a plane my emotions were indescribable. It's the same now.
Even though I woke up early again this morning it still managed to fly by. It rained quite a bit last night and the hammock still kept me dry. I did have a puddle of water which kept formin gin the rain fly, but I think that's an easily fixed problem. It kept raining after the sun rose and didn't really stop till about 10:30. We were worried it wouldn't and were so glad when it did. We didn't want to pack wet tents and I still had clothes on the line! Luckily we got everything dryed and packed just in time. Kahu graciously offered to give us a ride to the airport and way too quickly we were there.
We had an ugly surprise when we got to the airport. Shad's flight time had been changed and his plane was departing as we walked in the door! There was a good amount of confusion and worry, as he hadn't been notified and we weren't sure what was going to happen. As I got into the check-in line for my own flight, Shad was sent through a maze of offices to find answers. It turns out he somehow fell through the cracks when Air Pacific notified people, so they put him on my flight free of charge. Now he has a 24hr layover in LA instead of two slightly shorter layovers in Fiji and LA. I'm kind of glad he's on my flight. This way we can still get an end of the road picture and truly finish this trip together.
The flight is only slightly miserable. I've gone through two movies so far and will watch another one or two. I doubt I'll sleep much if at all. The plane is full and I can feel the cramped quarters starting to stress me out a bit. I need to put one of my New Zealand lessons to use:
NZ Lesson Number 1 ~ Just Chill Out.
A Great Day to Kick Back
Other lessons include:
~ Enjoy life for everything it is and don't worry about what it's not.
~ Relish the journey, but don't make the journey so long that there's no time for side trips or that you're too tired to enjoy the destination.
~ You can't truly experience a country without meeting its people, and you can't truly know a people without knowing their land.
~ Always make sure you pack a chainbreaker and some extra links.
~ The best things in life are free. Some of them include: stars, conversation, sunshine, downhill rides, warm sand, refreshing swims, shade trees, fruit trees, meeting new people, and having the wind at your back.
~ Travelling is better with a friend.
End of the Road
written by  aeonhunterinnz on January 12, 2010 from Los Angeles, United States

End of the Road

Decadent

Smoked Fish Lunch

A Great Day to Kick Back

Grandma's Quilt Kept Me Warm

Camp Wool Shed

Last Hill?

Celebrate?

Panoramic

Clydesdale

Morning Entertainment

Cathedral Cove

Hot Water Madness

Cookie Break

Pretty Breakfast View

Melissa

Statue View

Sleeping Off New Year's

Fireworks

New Year's 00:00

Going Down Mauao

Looking out from Mauao

Beach Hammock

I swear the moon was bigger.

Story of the Statue

Shad Fixes Bike While I Play

Nutella?

Statue of a Girl

Hungry

Rainy Day

Penultimate Hill

Top of the Rock

Shad's Hands

Our Christmas Family Photo

Dolphins!

Carol