Thames to Tauranga

An Amazingly beautiful day - sun with clouds off in the distance! The journey was cool for the first part very flat and then after Paeroa I hit some hills that seemed to climb forever. After learning from my mistakes on my first day I cycling I decided to stop more and take interesting pictures, such as this one with me by the Big L&P bottle in Paeroa - a soft drink that is "World Famous in New Zealand". The funny part is that the town actually has two of these bottles one with the older logo and the other with the updated logo. I've posted the other pic on my facebook page....except I'm not in that photo.

Although the picture shows that it was a beautiful day - all changed shortly thereafter - while I was climbing and descending in the mountains/hills when the rain clouds moved in (as did the mist). Still felt great. Drank heaps of water - never ran out and of course I should give a plug to Powerade as I bought the type that you add to water (back in Auckland) to keep my blood sugar levels optimized as well as ensure that I won't suffer from dehydration etc - this was mentioned so that Suzanne, Julie, and of course my father (just to name a few people) won't freak out and worry about ME.

After the rain cleared I encountered rolling hills - good thing I don't mind them and I think doing squats in the gym helped BIG TIME. The only difficult part was the fact that the highway was a bit busy for my liking, especially as I closed in on Tauranga.

Once I arrived in Tauranga, cycled to "Just the Ducks Nuts" a cool backpackers hostel just outside of the city centre and settled in for the evening. Ended up staying 2 nights at that hostel, enough time to allow exploration of Mt. Maunganui and visit Matt and Ang (well actually only Ang - who I met in 2001, and the kids).

Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui was the place that would most likely be affected by a tsunami if any of the fault lines in the Pacific created a wave. Most recently about 3 or 4 months ago they were under a tsunami watch but it only amounted to about a 4cm wave coming in. As you can see in my pic - the place would be completely washed away... if a big wave hit.

Good times... very restful after two days of cycle touring and local cycling I'm now at about 256km. Don't worry I won't always include this information in my posts.