Day 3 - Wakefield to Lake Rotoroa
Day 3 - Wakefield to Lake Rotoroa
After our epic day 2, we both slept deeply and awoke to a cool, overcast morning. The body was feeling pretty tired and the legs were telling me what they got up to yesterday.
A diversion
The plan for the day was to ride a short distance along the Great Taste Trail to Spooners Tunnel. I’m told it’s quite spectacular; you even need headlamps to get through it. Sadly, the weather from the last few weeks has continued to wreak havoc on the trail infrastructure and we came across a “trail closed” sign before we could get to the tunnel. Nothing for it but to hit the highway and make our way on the alternate route.
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| No tunnel for you! |
Sadly for us the road was crazy busy with Monday morning traffic and the gentle slope we would have had on the trail was replaced by an aggressive climb. The clouds were low and our breath was visible. After many breaks we finally made it to the top of the pass and made our way into the next valley
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| Smiling despite the steepness and the traffics |
From the here, the weather started to clear and we found ourselves with another warm day filed with sunshine and blue skies. It would appear that I’ve been a good luck charm when it comes to the weather.
Kohatu Cafe
Our first stop was at the Kohatu Cafe where we filled our devices with electrons and our bellies with deliciousness. If you find yourself there, try the fish try the Bacon and Egg pie. I highly recommend it. The lamington to finish was probably unnecessary but a good lamington is practically unheard of in Canada so I figured I need to make up for lost time.
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Disaster!
As we departed the cafe with bodies and devices charged for the day ahead, disaster struck! I had a flat tire/tyre (FYI I’ll do my best to be bi-lingual for this blog)! All morning I’d been feeling like my bike was a bit wobbly and I suspect that the air had been slowly leaking out. Fortunately we hadn’t gone far so looped back to the cafe grounds and sat on the grass with the sun shining on our backs to fix the problem. Since this was my only spare tube I decided to apply a patch as well and sneakily went into the washroom to find the hole (in the sink) and then patch it up. The process took a while and I was starting to worry about the staff thinking I was up to no good. I spent a long time int eh bathroom, there’s a smell of glue wafting out, little pieces of foil in the trash (from the back side of the patch) and also some sloshing of water.
After all was said and done the bike was back in business and so were we. Finding the trail again we rode through beautiful countryside including many more hops farms than I expected. If you like your hoppy IPA beers this is where it all begins.
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| Hops |
Tapawera to the Tadmor Saddle
This section of the trail was pretty long with another big climb. After yesterday's journey I was more than a little nervous. We were looking at another gravel track with a sizable elevation gain. Fortunately, this was a beautiful trail. The gravel was hard-packed and made for easy riding. The road was super quiet with basically no traffic and in no time we were at the summit and making our way down. We actually ended up on a highway which made fast work of the decent (notwithstanding dodging the road kill along the way)
Lake Rotoroa
The final leg of the journey was only 12 km or so. If we hadn’t just ridden 80 km already it would have been a breeze. The road was paved, the wind was at our backs and the sun beat down beautifully. Pretty much perfect riding conditions. With much relief we found ourselves at the lake. It is as stunning as it is infested with sand-flies. So after a quick photo it was on to our accommodations.
The road to the lake |
| The lake! Not shown: Sandflies |
The best people
After two nights camping, and with very wet tents (due to the dew) we decided to go to a backpackers hostel. The couple who run the place are something special. We were warmly welcomed and we enquired about food. Louise replied “give me a bit and I’ll put on some tea for you around 6. Does a Roast Chicken sound nice?” Yeah, that will do. We asked about laundry “No worries pet, just chuck your things in the basket and I’ll throw a load on for you”. Despite our protestations (we know what our gear is like after three hot days of riding…its’ not pretty) Louise insisted and we relented.
Tony and I were fortunate to have our own room and were able to spread our gear out and take stock of everything., My first shower in two days and I finally feel a bit more civilized. The sun did beat down hard today and between that and the riding I’m pretty exhausted. My cozy and warm bed calls to me.
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