Chelsea's First Cycling Adventure

This is the time of the year where we have about 2 weeks off work to spend with our family's for the Christmas season and while we love spending time with our hound Jesse, we wanted to get away for a few of those days to escape from the Christmas chaos. This lead us to exploring many options but with a wedding fast approaching, we wanted to keep somewhat of a tight budget and what better way to explore some of NZ then on bike.

I think if you told Chelsea 7 years ago that she would be accompanying me on a bicycle trip, you would have heard laughter. However, after 7 years of slowly introducing her to biking as another method of both exercise and exploring, I was able to convince her to come with me on another cycling adventure. After a bit of research, we decided to tackle the twin coast cycle trail that runs from Opua to Horeke in the Northland part of New Zealand.

We started our getaway by driving from Auckland to Paihia which is a 3-4 hour drive depending on weather and traffic. Paihia was a good choice to spend the night as it is a coast town situated in the Bay of Islands and has quite a bit going on for a small town (** Brief tangent: Things to do in the area if you are there for a day: If you are interested, you can see the famous Waitangi treaty grounds where the treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British and Maori. You can also take a ferry to Russel, which was the first permanent settlement of Europeans in NZ. Of course being the Bay of Islands, there are plenty of water activities and tramping trails to do also **). After checking in to our motel and walking the town for a bit we decided to have a tasty lunch at a place called Thirty30 Craft Beer Bar. I am sure you can guess why "we" decided this particular place. Then we went back to our motel and swam in the pool for a bit followed by a soak in the hot tub. After the water activities, we decided that we were not hungry enough for dinner so we took a scenic hike to a lookout above the city. After an hour of through the forest uphill, we finally made it to the top where we saw all of Paihia and the heavy rain approaching it over the bay which meant run back to the bottom.

We happened to be in town as a cruise ship was there. The previous day they had another cruise ship "The Ovation of the Seas" which is one of the world's largest cruise ships. We actually saw it in the Auckland Harbour and it made the biggest buildings in Auckland look tiny.

Top of the look out. The Cruise ship is departing and you can also see Russel across the bay.

We ran all the way to a restaurant called "Only Seafood" where we had a delicious dinner of yellow finned tuna in a teriyaki sauce and king prawns in a honey soy sesame sauce. After dinner we retreated to the motel where we rested up as we had an early 7am start meaning we needed to leave the motel by 6:30 and drive to the trail start.

A delicious fancy seafood dinner complements of Margrit and Rob (our Christmas present). Thanks Margrit and Rob for one of the fanciest meals we have had in a while!

Twin Coast Cycle Trail Start

Opua to Horeke (day 1)

We woke up at 6 am and made our way to the trail start. The idea to start early was based on two reasons, the weather and the distance of 87 km. We unpacked all our gear at the trail start, loaded up the bikes and began the ride. The first town on the trail was Kawaka at 11 km from Opua and is the first possible stop along the ride. As Opua is a marina for boats, the first part of the trail was along the water and through the mangroves. The bridges were not my favourite as they decided to run the wood planks the wrong way which in combination with the rain made the crossings slippery and forced your tires into the gooves causing many "almost" wipe outs.

Chelsea at the start line looking energized and keen!

Chelsea off in the distance on our first leg to Kawaka along the water

Although most of this leg was old decommissioned rail line, with 3km left to Kawaka it became shared with the remaining functioning part of the old rail line (now a tourist scenery ride). Even though we had not eaten, we decided after the long bridge that we would push through Kawaka onward to Kaikohe (the halfway point). The weather was cooperating and we knew it was supposed to get worse at some stage so the more distance we could cover in the nicer weather, the better with 76km to go.

Just before Kawaka we cross a long bridge. Although looking the most simple part of the ride, it was probably the most dangerous as the grooves in planks were about the width of our tires and would force the bike into them....some non biking planner didn't think that one through. You can also see a bike gate in the picture, these annoying things were a recurring theme of this tour with curse words greeting them as we saw them in the distance approaching. Having to dismount all the time was not enjoyable.

As we pushed out of Kawaka, the next 34 km's took us through some forest and back country farms. The path to Kaikohe was mostly uphill and not eating or having snacks (my fault as I forgot to put some granola bars in) made the arrival in Kaikohe much needed. Chelsea needed a carb load and both of us needed a few minutes off the bikes and out of spitting rain. Large portions of the trail to Kaikohe consisted of clay/sand which in the rain felt like pedalling through quick-sand and the 45 km (from the start in Opua) took about 4 hours to cover. I have a few more pictures of this part of the trail but they were taken on the way back as we really wanted to push forward on the first day and we had to stop enough for all the bike gates.

Two cool suspension bridges behind Chelsea that crossed over the Orauta stream

Someone making sure that Kaikohe is actually approaching

When we arrived in Kaikohe it was lunch time and we found a nice café in the heart of the town or in the case of Kaikohe, the heart was the town.

Chelsea was quite happy that the promises of biking trips having good food finally were coming true at Café Malaahi. Nachos, wedges and a smoked chicken salad.

After lunch we were back on the trail with two legs left, Kaikohe to Okaihu (14 km) and Okaihu to Horeke (28 km). There is not much to say about the 11 km stretch other than lots of bike dismounts because of the gates. I am not sure why these existed in such frequency other than to annoy you especially if you had panniers because most of them could not fit my bike through. Even Chelsea's bike struggled because of the top part of the gates were the same height as her handle bars. Although annoying, we laughed a bit everytime we had to go through them as one of us would swear and the other would laugh and then before you know it, both of us would be laughing....maybe that was their intention.

A lovely dismount by Chelsea, perfect form!

The final stretch from Okaihu to Horeke was as Chelsea puts it... a $&%# (insert curse word there). The grade of the trail was predominantly 1 (easy) up until Okaihu where the last part upon further investigation was grade 2-3. This meant more mountain biking style with some steep descents, narrow parts, muddy if it were to rain (not that you would expect it to since the previous month and a half had been drought) and lots of short ups and downs in gravel. I guess all the tell tale signs of possible challenges were there since all the bike shops in the towns rented mountain only bikes...whoops.

After Okaihu the rain picked up and grade 3 means mountain bikes are preferred....not bikes with narrow tires and not bikes with heavy panniers on the back which we happened to check both those tick boxes...haha. I managed to slide around quite a bit with all the weight in the rear and there were a few walking portions because the grades were very steep/tricky and plenty of mud/loose gravel from all the rain. Out of the 28 remaining kilometers, the crazy ride accounted for 11kms and I think we rode 4-5 kms out of Okaihu before it started. Chelsea was a real trooper as she rode most of it and she has never done that type of riding. She even sped ahead of me on the down hills and I would catch up on the uphills. Considering we weren't riding mountain bikes, we managed to still pass a few people and we were only passed a couple times.

Just after the grade3 part of the ride, we stopped by the river and took a photo. Chelsea was happy to have the craziness over and the rain had started to let up a bit. Unfortunately we were too focussed getting through the technical part of the trail to take photos...maybe next time.

The home stretch of 10-12 km to Horeke was a much easier ride where we only competed with wet sand and loose gravel. The scenery more than made up for it as the riding into Horeke was amazing with panaroamic views of the old Harbour and a cool boardwalk.

A really cool 1.2 km board walk on the final stretch into Horeke

Looking back on this 42 km part of the ride, it was extremely scenic and really fun to ride however we would do it again with mountain bikes next time.

We arrived Horeke at about 4:30pm and managed to find our hotel. It was an easy find as it was the only establishment in Horeke and was the hotel, tavern, bike shuttle and various other amenities. I say easy find but I did ride passed it and quickly u-turned after there were no additional places. We were greeted by Olly, a 10 year old boy whose great Aunt and Uncle owned the place and this is who he lived with. He helped us wash off for no charge as he mentioned a few times that he was on the pay roll. He was a gracious host and we chatted with him quite a bit that afternoon and the next morning. A very intelligent young boy.

Olly helping Chelsea out with as he put it, a cheap car wash. Zeus the female dog and Anna the cat watched us although not in the photo

Horeke was an amazing accommodation with beautiful views. We lucked out and managed to receive the best room at the hotel which overlooked the lake. It was the size of two rooms put together as it was above the other two rooms. As we were told by Peter (the hotel owner and Olly's uncle), Horeke is the second oldest town in New Zealand and is the site of New Zealand’s first ever pub, the Horeke Hotel/tavern. The place was built in the late 1820's to support the ship building yard in Horeke as what would ship builders do without a pub. The inside of the tavern was very cool with many parts of it full of history and to aid that, a very knowledgeable owner. We showered, drank a few drinks and enjoyed a well deserved extremely tasty snapper dinner. As Chelsea's parents provided us with a very fancy first night meal, we used our Christmas money from the Fischer's to cover the Accommodation at Horeke...thanks mom and dad. We would definitely recommend this place to everyone!

Horeke Tavern deck, after a tough day ride

A delicious snapper dinner with home made French fries and tasty vegies

The Horeke Hotel. An amazing location run by Laurel and Peter with little Olly

We were really lucky as the afternoon/evening was quite nice outside and we sat outside for a bit just taking in the scenery. Laurel showed us the weather forecast for the next day and I believe there were lots of "Warnings", "Gale force winds" and "Showers" on her screen. We decided to enjoy the night and worry about that tomorrow. Around dusk it started to rain and it never really stopped for the rest of the ride.

Horeke to Kaikohe (Day 2)

We woke up pretty early in the morning as according to all my internet research, it was better to leave in the morning than wait. This was a bit of a debate with another couple we had met, Hugh and Sandrine as Sandrine had told us all about a Norwegian weather app that had never let them down and was saying to leave after lunch. I had checked 3 different websites, looked at the radar and decided we would push off early. Peter had arrange breakfast for everyone as there were 6 cyclists that stayed there that night and his advice was "you're gonna get wet". 

As we went back up to the room, the rain picked up quite a bit Chelsea and I decided that we would see if we could get a shuttle passed the difficult part of the trail as it had rained all night would have made it almost impossible on our bikes (or there would have been too much walking) for us to get through it reasonably. We already knew there would have been some quite steep uphills. We asked Peter if he could shuttle us and he thought we made the right call after seeing our bikes. Thanks Peter for the help! We decided to shuttle to Okaihu as we didn't want to shuttle the whole way and have nothing to do for the day. As we moved our gear toward the shuttle, we saw Sandrine and Hugh getting ready to ride. I guess they decided to go with our advice instead of waiting until lunch to start. Along the shuttle ride, the rain and wind kept picking up and Peter asked us if we were sure we wanted to ride to which both Chelsea and I responded that we were committed to riding something. those were a wet 14 km and it took a while as the trail was very wet and slow. We arrived in Kaikohe after an hour and a half of riding which tells you how slow we were. This put us in around lunch time and it took us an hour or so to clean off both the bikes and ourselves.

Chelsea ready to start the ride in Okaihu. We rode to the public toilets and were greeted by bikers going the other way. One of them asked if I had a Philips screw driver to which I finally was able to meet Bob's standards (a cycling friend) and say "What size do you need?"

After we cleaned off, we walked around Kaikohe and stopped off at the only pub in town for a drink and some food. The pub was empty except for the room with all the pokies (slot machines for North Americans) which had 20 people crammed in it. This was apparently the thing to do in the town. We went back to our motel and eventually were greeted by Sandrine and Hugh who completed the ride from Horeke on their full suspension Giant mountain bikes (Good job!). They also said that we made the right call with our bikes as they had to get off in parts and told us that the trail was very muddy and lots of water. They did say that with their bikes, it was still quite enjoyable even having to walk a bit as the water made the streams really come alive. We agreed to meet them for dinner after they had cleaned up and rested for a bit. Chelsea and I spent the next couple hours reading our books, playing monopoly deal and watching a weird movie on basic cable (that is the only way to describe it).

The wind and rain had really picked up over this time and for dinner we all decided to go to the RSA (Returned Services' Association) as it was right beside the motel. We had to sit outside because all the tables were taken but it gave us time to enjoy the gale force winds and torrential rain that had finally arrived. Luckily the awning was built sturdy as there were some pretty large items hitting it from the trees above.

We also had two other ladies that were planning to start riding the next day join us for dinner about 20 minutes after we arrived. I would say they were in their mid-late 50's, full of energy and I can't remember what they talked about because they had two completely differing conversations at the same time, that changed topic every 5 minutes at the same loud volume level to all of the rest of. It was quite comical actually because it was impossible to say a word. At one point, Chelsea quickly mentioned about liking birds and one of the ladies asked if we were fortunate enough to see pigeons and peacocks in NZ yet?????....yes I scratched my head also and Sandrine said "those are not NZ birds". Like I mentioned, it was funny to have them for the hour or so they ate dinner with us but I am not sure how much more I could have lasted. Hugh and I just kept drinking beers as I think he was using this activity just like me, an excuse to leave the table. Luckily we had the first 20 minutes to chat with Hugh and Sandrine  prior to the ladies arriving because conversation was impossible after that. We ended dinner when the power went down at the RSA and retreated to our Motel. The weather for the final day of riding was supposed to be hit or miss depending on the storm but again, we would make our decision in the morning of what the plan was.

Kaikohe to Opua (Day 3)

Again, Chelsea and I woke up early to figure out what the weather was doing. The night was very loud as the wind was intense and it sounded like the motel was going to blow over. Although still quite windy in the morning, after going for breakfast with Hugh and Sandrine we decided that we would make the final leg on bike as the rain had slowed and the crazy wind was going to be mostly tail wind plus having ridden this leg already, we knew what the trail was like. As a bonus, Kaikohe is 150-200 metres higher in elevation than Opua so we knew that the day was going to also be mostly down hill.

Although we didn't plan on riding together with the other couple, we met up with them multiple times throughout the day and stopped in Kawaka to have one last quick bite to eat before saying goodbye. They were a lovely couple to meet and we may see them again as they live in Auckland.

I had to take this picture on the way back as we took the path of the arrow on the first day thinking it meant bike path. After making that turn we learned that the translation of this sign is BMX track (specifically moguls) and once you are on it, there is no getting off....haha. Well we weren't laughing at the time.

Chelsea going through the tunnel, good thing we brought our lights!

This was much of the trail from Kaikohe to Kawaka. Very cool forest track.

Another Pic of the suspension bridge with Hugh and Sandrine on it

The high winds made for some creative tree avoidance

The water climbing up with all the rain. Chelsea in the distance!

Last stop before the end! Sandrine and Chelsea just finished re-energizing

Me on the rail bridge.

Some last bit of country riding before the end of the ride. Hopefully you can see the brown mound in the distance as that was a detour due to a tunnel issue. Not a fun last climb up steep loose gravel switch backs but we did it! 

We did the last 11 km to the Tia (our car) at the trail start. Again, we were very lucky as the rain had let up and we were able to dry off mostly before ending.

Twin Coast Cycle Trail DONE AND DUSTED! 

The final bit of dry weather allowed us to make the decision to drive back to Auckland. To give you an idea of the wind conditions, we arrived back and watched the news to find out that there was severe damage to a lot of the North Island. Most of the water front streets in Auckland were under water as the wind in addition to king tide causes sever flooding. Also, most of northland has been without power because of the storm. If you factor all this in, our conditions were very lucky as we managed to pick the right times to ride and not to ride. 

After a shower Chelsea has been quoted stating "I would do another one".....I think we have a keeper!

Ciao

Chris