Day 2 - The Road Less Traveled
Sunday - March 3rd, 2024
Ahipara - Rawene
65 Kilometers
We started out Day 2 with first some instant oatmeal that was a cross between pencil shavings and wallpaper paste followed by dehydrated chicken carbonara along with instant coffee and tea. Wow what a breakfast! We got our bikes all packed and made our way out of Ahipara and into a landscape of farms, meadows, and grassland. Filled with horses, sheep, assorted cows and scarcely any signs of humans.
Before long we encountered our first hill which was daunting but still climbable, the second was more challenging and 2/3 of the way up I had to hop off of my bike and walk the remainder of the hill. While walking up the hill I thought I heard voices behind me. Well it wasn't voices from God but a bunch of cyclists charging up the hill on racing road bikes Their speed was amazing! They were doing the same route as we were but had a, what I like to call, “swag wagon” that carried all of their personal gear unlike the 20 to 30 pounds of gear that Luc and I had on our bikes. Our route took us to an old gravel logging road that went on for at least 22 kilometers. A road that our speed cyclist friends did not follow us on. Not only was the path we chose less traveled, it was rocky and rutty and we just couldn't make progress pedaling. We came to an intersection and the directions told us to head down hill. Terror, fear and excitement and bone jarring it was all the way to the bottom where the gravel road emptied into the sleepy little hamlet Kohukohu.
Nothing seemed to be open until Luc spotted a tavern and found out that it was open. As we wheeled our bikes onto the back patio we were immediately welcomed and invited to join this group at the outdoor bar. Within what seemed like only seconds they had bought us each a beer. Well what a time we had. They were Rawene locals (the town just across the river) that now live and work in Perth, Australia as miners but were back in town for a wedding. Well we had a party! Singing the song by Tony Orlando and Dawn ..... Knock Three Times. If you don't know the song, take the time to look it up and listen to it. Each time the song says “knock three times” we all had to slam our bottles of beer on the table three times and swill down some beer. What a time we had until we realized we had to catch the 7PM ferry to Rawene, which was 4 kilometers away. We jumped on our bikes and raced to the ferry. Just as we got there everyone from the bar had driven down to the docks to join us with music blaring and beers in hand. We couldn’t leave the party even when we tried. Wow what a day !!!!
