More than a few Kiwis have apologized to us for the “weird, wet weather” that has rained from the skies for the first few days of our visit. No worries, we think…we have lots to do with picking up and setting up bikes, buying a few things and getting all our belongings to fit into bags on our bikes. My memories of New Zealand from a trip 40 years ago was more about avoiding sunburn than rain, but I do remember a cyclone affecting us and leaving 8 inches of slushy snow for us in the middle of summer of that year. It melted quickly. And so, it’s not super worrying at this point, and the forecast is improving in the short term anyway.
We both like Auckland a lot! It seems like it has the best parts of “the good old days”, while including a lot of influence from Māori culture, the native peoples who lived in New Zealand before white people, and who currently make up about 15% of the population of New Zealand. Life seems simpler and more pleasant. The people are super friendly – the most friendly people that either of us has ever met, and the town is tidy in all directions. We’ve walked around a bit, seeing the high streets and gardens…the weather has not been that terrible, and we even took a boat ride out to a quasi-island (it has a bridge now) and spent a day doing a test ride on our new bikes.
We mostly shop in the market and cook in our apartment, but one night go out to a Persian restaurant called Rumi in Parnell, walking distance from our apartment, that is marvelous.
After Sunday, we’ll leave our comfortable place in the Newmarket area of Auckland and everything we own has to fit on our bikes or be left behind. We’ve done it before, but these bikes are configured differently than our European ones, with smaller bags and different lots of things to accommodate trail riding, narrow walking bridges and varied road surfaces. They are heavier bikes than we took to Europe, especially Chris’ as her normal touring bike is pretty light. But it would not really work on these trails.
Sunday morning, we woke early and rode into the city, and took the bus to Kaitaia, via Kerikeri, and then reassembled bikes for the 10 mile ride to Ahipara, where our trip begins. It’s all exciting and slightly scary at the same time…NZ will certainly be different than Europe.
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