We enjoyed a quiet, sunny early morning ride - hilly to Kawahara Bay and then flat to Clevedon, 30k from the park.  We enjoyed a good breakfast at a tea room that served us early, before it officially opened.  Then another 10k of country riding before suddenly arriving in the city, on the Great South Road.  Next followed a typical 20k of big city bike riding - heavy traffic, confusion, getting lost, dodging opening car doors, before finally arriving at the airport just before noon.  

After stewing over our requirements and options, we checked our bikes at the overnight storage facility ($20NZ - 5/bike * 2 days!), reserved a room at the Central Aukland Bakpackers, and arranged a shuttle ride to the hotel.  The shuttle was really quite a good, convenient and reasonably cheap service.

After checking in, we caught a bus down to a nearby beach - Rachael wanted one last chance to lie around by the water.  It proved to be a great idea - we had a lovely, relaxing afternoon and early evening on the beach.  We waded far out into the water - it stayed knee or thigh deep for about 100 yards - Rachael in the swimsuit she had worn under her street clothes, and I in my street shorts and shirt because I thought I could change at the beach but then forgot to bring my suit anyway.

There was an attractive shopping/eating area by the bay, where we found a number of restaurants to choose from before settling on a pleasing Italian cafe.  We split orders of stuffed eggplant and (hmm - I forget what else).  We then went bck to the beach and spent more time watching the sailboats, families and gulls, enjoying the very lively, lovely shoreline.  We caught the bus back to our room at sundown and were kept awake until 2 or 3 AM by blasting, raucous sounds from the adjacent tavern.

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply