09/12/2017 - Bicycle Tour through New Zealand

Welcome to Coromandel!

Already a day before, we left Muriwai Beach. On our way, we passed Auckland City. At the beginning, we went to our last Airbnb accommodation in Auckland and picked up our mail. Then we went to Chilli Rentals, where we bought our car about three weeks ago. The owner wanted to take another look under the hood. After we got our open questions answered and everything was clarified, there was nothing stopping us from continuing our journey. We took the opportunity to go shopping in a large supermarket. After that, we quickly got out of the city.
At this point, we just have to mention again that our drives regularly lead through beautiful nature. Although we can't address it every time, this highway (SH25) deserves it. From Thames, we took a narrow coastal road north to our new campsite on the Coromandel Peninsula. The road winds past charming villages and is always close to the sea. At frequent intervals, there were laybys that we would have loved to use to enjoy the view. Unfortunately, the time was already very far advanced, as the access roads, which were already overcrowded, were almost blocked that day due to a train driver strike in Auckland.
Upon arrival in Coromandel, we cleared our bed as usual from backpacks and various things. For dinner, we had delicious hamburgers.

The next day, we took advantage of the offer from our campsite to borrow bicycles free of charge. We chose a route and started our bike tour motivated. We quickly realized that cycling in New Zealand is only partially fun. Especially in rural areas, the construction of cycle paths or similar has not yet taken place. So we shared the first part of our bike tour with pickups speeding at 100kmh, which passed us by with less than a meter of distance. The next section was much quieter - on a not too busy gravel road. We struggled up hill after hill to finally reach a straight section of road. On the side, we noticed traffic signs with the inscription: 'Pigs Crossing'. After a few minutes, we saw several cars parked by the roadside. In advance, we had already picked out this small farm and were happy to finally have reached it. It didn't take long before we both had a six-day-old piglet in our arms. So small and tired like a pig. No matter which arm it lay on - the important thing was: comfortable lying down and hiding its head in the crook of the arm, so that it is nice and dark. For me, it is very difficult to put into words what I felt in that moment. - It was another highlight of our trip. :)
The small farm, located on both sides of the gravel road, belongs to Stu. Stu is an absolute free spirit and lives with his animals on the property. In addition to pigs, he keeps chickens and bees. In conversation, he told us that the animals are his pets and therefore not slaughtered. The animals live in absolute freedom - no fence keeps them in. As a result, they regularly change sides of the road, which is why the traffic signs are set up in both directions. We stopped at the side of the road for a while and watched the cheerful hustle and bustle. :)

Four kilometers further, we reached the 'Waiau Falls'. These can be reached within a few minutes on foot from the gravel road. The waterfall is located in the middle of the forest. Although it is not particularly large, we liked the idyll and rested for a few minutes from the exhausting and dusty bike tour.

After another 500 meters, we reached the next and last stop for today. The 'Waiau Kauri Grove' takes you past some Kauri specimens within 30 minutes. We spent our little lunch break with an apple slice as a snack at one of the 600-year-old trees before heading back to the campsite - uphill and downhill, past Stu's farm, the highway, and through Coromandel Town.