How we start filling our days with either climbing, cycling or hiking, or with cycling to the climbing area followed by hiking in to reach the crag to go climbing.

Our first stop on this part of the trip was to pop in at Hercules Tanks in Katikati, to see if they can help with adjusting our water tanks. As you might have seen in some of the photos, our tanks – which are suspended from the bottom of the van – are a little low, meaning we hit the occasional speed bump and can’t take any rough gravel roads. We were a bit nervous as we weren’t sure whether they would be able to help us, but the van’s booked in for beginning December and we should gain at least 40mm of extra clearance, woohoo! This also meant we now knew we had a month to spend on the North Island before driving further south. We brought out the map and came up with some ideas of how and where to spend the next few weeks.

After a few hours of work in the Katikati library, we drove to Mt Maunganui. We managed to find one of the last available spots on the few self-contained campsites and were happy to park up the van for the next two days. The following morning, we used our bikes to get to the climbing crag, where we spent a half day climbing. Beautiful weather and stunning views, but a bit weird climbing so close to a popular walking track, as we kept giving people frights once they noticed us. Not the nicest climbing in terms of routes as well so this crag probably won’t become a favourite of ours.

After a rainy day spent doing more work in the library, it was time for something active again. We stayed the night at Omokoroa, a nice spot at the end of a peninsula outside of town, and had found a random bike ride online that we were keen to check out. After a nice stretch of coast-hugging boardwalks, we ended up on a building site. The first fence was unlocked and didn’t have a sign, so we stubbornly continued, resulting in lugging the bikes over a few more (this time actually locked) fences, crossing someone’s garden and sneaking past a security guard at one of the orchards. Not keen on returning the way we came, we then had to take the motorway back. All in all an adventurous ride, but that’s what cyclocross bikes are made for after all!

Our next stop was Mangorewa Gorge, which has an awesome free campsite at the nearby TECT park. I did a nice loop walk through the gorge, starting in the bush and ending with a 6km stream bash, always good fun. The next day we followed the stream in the other direction and checked out the Mangorewa climbing crag, which turned out to be beautiful! Very nice, clean walls, plenty of routes, all very well bolted. We did a few long and pumpy routes (25m) before we needed to head back to make sure we would be out of the bush before dark.

Thomas his day was made when we woke up and started chatting to our campsite neighbours, which were planning on climbing that day and didn’t mind Thomas joining them. I drove out to Rotorua to work in the library again. Man, I love libraries, they’re just the best to get stuck into a few hours of work. At the end of the day we met up in Rotorua and decided to spend a night at a paid campsite on Boyes Beach, but we really wished we hadn’t.. We were kept up for most of the night by our loud and drunk neighbours, even though we’ve asked them several times to please keep it quiet. It ended up being a very short night, especially since I had set the alarm to start hiking at 7.30am.

From the campsite, I walked to the start of the Western Okataina Walkway and hiked across to the motorway on the other side, where Thomas would pick me up again. It was easier going than I thought, which was good as it made the 22km go by fast and still gave me time to chat to some people I met along the way. After a road-side coffee brew, we drove to Kawerau where there’s free hot pools so we spent a few hours in the pool followed by a hot shower, such luxury! We ended the day on the beach in Opotiki, getting ready for our next adventure – cycling Motu Trails on CX bikes!