I went from Glenfield up to the Whangapaoroa Peninsula for the weekend. The first day was only 30 kilometres and a couple of hours riding north up to Red Beach. Today's myPod hits were Queen's "Ride the Wild Wind" and the Mamas and The Papas "California Dreaming" - an all time favourite on Alzheimers FM (songs that go round and round in your head and more often than not have most of the words missing!)
The route along East Coast Rd was fantastic and I was soon out of the city riding amongst fields. I even saw a flock of turkeys! At the end of East Coast Rd I had to get onto State Highway 1 at Silverdale. Not a major highway by international standards but New Zealand's biggest and busiest and with a one kilometre climb I got a little bit freaked by the heavy traffic. I was very glad to turn off to Red Beach; the recommendation in Pedallers' Paradise that "novice, unfit or sane cyclists avoid SH1 between Auckland and Wellsford" is well founded (and I'd ridden less than five kilometres of it!).
The campsite at Red Beach is beautiful and wasn't very busy at all. I rewarded myself with a feed of kumara chips from the local fish and chop shop. Kumara is a NZ sweet potato and the chips are a real treat.
I bought my tent about ten years ago and finally slept in it for the first time. There's just enough space for me and all my gear; the bike had to sleep outside though. I woke early the next morning and saw a spectacular sunrise from Red Beach.
After breakfast and packing up I headed out along the peninsula to Shakespear Regional Park. The views are incredible. From Te Haruhi Bay you can see out to Rangitoto Island and all the way into Auckland to the Sky Tower. It's really scenic and only slightly ruined by the erection of a giant picture frame for people to take photos through!
Crawling out along the peninsula and back was another 40km in the bank and I felt a lot better than at the end of the first day. I stayed the night at the Orewa Beach Holiday Park which is right on the beachfront. It's very popular and there are many standing caravans in place as well as a fair few campervans and a few tents. After checking in I was greeted by my neighbours for the night Kerry and Fay with an ice-cold can of L&P (another NZ treat!). A quick trip to the fruit and vege shop and a stop-off for some chips from the local fish and chip shop and I was sorted. I think I'm going to become a bit of a connoisseur of New Zealand's fish and chip shops.
The final day was the 30 kilometres back to Glenfield basically retracing my outbound route. I took it much easier on the return leg and though it only took me a half hour more I found it a lot easier going. I'm putting that down to a combination of having lightened my load by eating most of the food I took and setting a slower pace rather than any increase in fitness!
Throughout the three days the weather was superb. Never more than a gentle breeze and beautiful sunshine - I'm even starting to get tan lines from my cycling gloves! The bike held up really well and the only bits of gear I need to fix are one of the straps on the tent which ripped off the groundsheet, adding some bits of garden hose to stop the metal ends of the bungy cords holding the front panniers on cutting into the front rack, and changing the bolts on my handle bar bag which worked loose stripping the plastic they screw into.
All up a pretty successful 3-day, 100km warm up/shakedown ride.
