10/1/26 – Omapere – Waipoua River: 32.1km (247.93km), 634m elevation (3hrs 7mins)
The rest day did the trick and we were feeling ready to tackle the 400m climb up into the rainforest today to ride amongst the Kauri trees. Like the Huon pine of Tasmania, the Kauri were harvested until they were threatened to become extinct. To be able to ride up and see a Kauri tree estimated to be around 2500-3000 years old got us all excited!
Our only issue was a short sharp 100m of elevation climb straight out of Omapere. this thing was a beast, with ramps of 14-16%…waaaay to much for a fully loaded touring bike and unfortunately, too much for young Oliver who was forced to get off and walk despite putting in an admirable performance at riding it. This and the next short sharp hill quickly scrubbed what motivation the rest day had imbued on Oliver and we were left questioning how the long climb would go today.
In true Roarpedallers style though we stopped off under a couple of trees, and had a moment. Patrick found a dead Australasian harrier and plucked some cool tail feathers. We then continued onto Waimamakau and got a couple of bits of fruit from the 4-square there which did the trick nicely.
From Waimamakau we were straight onto the climb proper and the lower slopes had a bit of a pinch in the tail. Oliver chatted all the way up about a multitude of things, including but not limited too – our favourite movies, how the guy in men in black gets taken over by aliens and has cockroaches coming out of him, how Tadej Pogocar and Jonas Vingegarrd are great riders and good competitors, what would happen if you shot a bazooka out of a trench in WW1, can you shoot a deer with a .22…….things really got tangental. Before we knew it, we were pretty much at the top and had found ourselves in a beautiful temperate rainforest with more shades of greens than surely can be painted. We were all really chuffed with ourselves as it marked yet again a bit of a feeling of accomplishment for not only Oliver but for Raelene and myself as well, and also a feeling that this may actually be possible.
A short descent and we were into the realm of ‘Tane Mahuta’ – Lord of the forest and one of NZ’s largest trees. We jumped off the bikes, washed our shoes in the wash down station and proceeded along the boardwalk. The sheer bulk of this tree almost materialised out of the undergrowth, its height and girth giving it an almost obscene ‘man-made’ exterior until you looked closely and realised it was a massive tree! The kids couldn’t believe it, all three wandered out onto the viewing platform, eyes turned skywards staring into the web of the trees canopy, and inadvertently wrecking photographs of other tourists…..We sat and simply took it in, feeling dwarfed in not only stature but time. To think this single tree has been here for 2500 years, avoiding axes and chainsaws and now the kauri dieback disease, is astounding.
After lunch overlooking the canopy of the trees from the park opposite we got back on the bikes, climbed again for a short time then enjoyed a cracking 8km descent through the forest, whizzing around bends, stealing glances up at huge Kauri trees that lined the road, and enjoying the feeling of free km’s.
Finally we reached the bottom of the hill and the Waipoua river. Turning right we continued another 2km to our campsite, remarking what a great day on the bikes it had been. A swim in the river and chicken curry with rice for dinner topped of a cracking day and will hopefully be replicated tomorrow as we continue our journey through the Waipoua forest.
11/1/26 – Waipoua River – Trounson Kauri Park: 17.8km (265.73), 391m elevation. 2hrs 2mins
It was so quiet waking up in the bush, a few birds could be heard and I was up making a cuppa as the sun rose. Oliver and Arthur joined me and had a chai latte while the porridge was cooking. After breakfast we all helped pack away then Arthur and Oliver really wanted to go for a morning swim, as Patrick finished off his diary I went to the river with the boys and enjoyed watching them have a blast swimming and then of course end up watching the splashes of the rocks they had fun throwing in. Patrick and Rhys joined us at the river for a bit of fun also.
It was then time to get on the bikes and ride up the hill out of Waipoua forest. It was another very hot day so we enjoyed the shades of the trees for the first bit of the climb. 5km later we reached the top, it was a nice steady climb up and to be honest I loved it. I could hear Patrick behind me chatting away to himself playing a game – he couldn’t tell me what the game was but he was having fun. Oliver needed a few prune stops but made it to the top with great energy.
Just over the top Oliver found a shop he wanted to stop at, it sold Kauri souvenirs. After much debate all 3 walked out with a new necklace and a huge smile on their faces. Not long after the stop we turned off the sealed road and hit a gravel down hill. I must admit I do not like gravel especially with a heavy tandem bike. Slowly, slowly Patrick and I followed Oliver, Rhys and Arthur who sped down the hill. I am amazed at Oliver’s courage and skill on the bike – he zoomed down no issues as all. I was so nervous, the large gravel sometimes made the wheel lurch sideways and I had to use so much upper body strength to keep it from slipping out, Patrick was under strict instruction to keep very still. Half way down the hill I had to stop for a quick rest to give my arms and hands a break. But eventually I did get into the swing of it and found if I looked a little ahead on the road I had a smoother descent.
3km down the gravel road we found a lovely park with cover to have our lunch, Oliver and Arthur smashed two cups of soup and a handful of crackers as they were so hungry. After a lovely reset we returned to the gravel, this time it was much smoother and we gently climbed along the quiet road to our campsite. Along the way we saw lots of signs warning people to keep dogs away as kiwi are found in this area.
It was nice to ride into camp early afternoon, Oliver and Arthur set the tent us as Patrick and I did some handwashing. The rest of the afternoon was spent resting around the tent enjoying the hot weather. Rhys cooked up a delicious kumara Dahl for dinner. As we waited for 9:30pm Patrick has a sleep, Oliver listened to his audiobook, Arthur couldn’t sleep as he admitted he was just too excited to find a kiwi. Rhys went for a bush walk to look at the kauri trees which he said were amazing, when he got back I went for a quick walk to take a look which I am glad I did. Walking alone in the bush is amazing and so tranquil, looking up and seeing giant kauri trees standing so strong and bold amongst the other trees really is a sight to behold.
Finally the time had come and it was dark enough to go for a kiwi hunt. We woke Patrick up, had the head torch ready, gave the briefing to keep as quiet as possible and off we went. The deeper into the bush we got the darker it was and then we were surprised by seeing glow worms hidden under branches and fallen trees, they were amazing. Every now and again we would stop to listen, about 15mins into the walk we finally heard something so waited in great anticipation for the kiwi to show its self, unfortunately it didn’t but it was exciting hearing it stomp and sniff around. A little deeper into the forest and by this time it was completely black which gave the bush an eerie feeling, we heard a kiwi very close. We sat so quietly and waited for it to come out of the bush but it never did show itself. Unfortunately our headtouch red light was not strong enough to see very far. However it was amazing how loud Kiwi’s are, we could hear it sniffing around so clearly and when it walked it would thump about. It was quite an experience sitting in the dark so close to a kiwi all being silent while searching the bush for movement.
The walk back to camp in the dark was lovey, we saw hundreds of glow worms, stars through the tree tops and enjoyed the silence. The night bush truly is a magical place.
12/1/26 – Trounson Kauri park to Te Kopuru. 55.46km (321.19km) 429m elevation, 4hrs 20min.
With our ferry booked for the 14th, we needed to make sure we did enough km’s in order to guarantee ourselves to be at or near Pouto Point as early as we could on the 14th. This meant we needed to pull a big day today and get past Dargaville….the thing is though, our biggest day previously had been 36 odd km, we were now staring down the barrel of a 50+km ride!
The boys were gee’d up and ready to roll. Oliver knew he had a big one today but fortunately we had more negative than positive gradient on the menu. For the first 15km of the ride we also reaped the benefits of a ripping tailwind that propelled us out of the beautiful Kauri forests and over the loose gravel farm roads. There were a couple of climbs that presented themselves today, one of which in particular that curved up past a plantation of pines. As we rode underneath them Oliver and Arthur both exclaimed that they could hear the ocean! They were so confused as to where the sound was coming from as there were no waves. It took them some time and a bit of hint for them to realise the noise was from the wind moving through the pine trees, It was a lovely moment.
Approaching Dargaville we joined the Kaihu rail trail. this was a bit difficult due to the infrastructure they had placed at the start of the trails – a narrow railing – which would have been fine for an unloaded bike but was a different story for the fully loaded tandems. Before we knew it though, we had hit Dargaville and everyone was rather pleased with their efforts it was only 1230 and this meant that we could have a good rest, enjoy a pie for lunch and pop into the bike shop to get some chain Lube, which we had run out of after 90 mile beach. In the bike shop I borrowed the chain stretch tool from the mechanic and confirmed my suspicions that the sand from the beach had done a real number on our chains. It appeared that we would need to replace Olivers and a couple on the tandems but figured that this could wait until Auckland.
Through the Tour Aotearoa face book page Raelene had made contact with a fellow named Alister who had offered to have us camp in his front yard. His place was around 16km south of Dargaville on Pouto road and we felt that it would be a perfect place to push onto today. With this confirmed we jumped back on the bikes and pedalled into what was now a ripping headwind! – how the tables turn…
We completed the 16km in good time and arrived at Alister, Julie and Mackenzie’s place. It was beautiful and they were so welcoming, kind and generous. We were treated to a wander through their orchard, picking fresh plums and Oranges, and found out that Alister had previously worked as a boat builder for the USA Americas cup yacht. The Kids enjoyed playing with Mackenzie and before long we were cooking up a great meal with fresh groceries from Dargaville and turning in for the night after our biggest day on the bikes YET!
13/1/26 – Te Kopuru – Pouto Point: 49.49km (370.68km), 803m elevation, 4hrs 32min.
Everyone had an amazing sleep on the very soft grass, while enjoying a cuppa I cut up some plums for the porridge as we were running low on honey. While chatting with Alister, Julie and Mackenzie we packed away our things, Julie handed me some homemade feijoa leather and chocolate chip cookies and wished us luck. We can’t thank Alister and Julie enough for their amazing hospitality and opening their property up to us, we had a lovely stay and all now feel very energised for our day of riding.
We set off just after nine and enjoyed quite a few hills through the farm country side, Patrick had strong pedalling legs which was great and I am still getting use to the ‘Hey Cow’ screams. Along the way we noticed a few kumara on the side of the road which must have fallen off a truck so at the top of a hill we collected some to have in our pasta tonight. 20kms in I needed to have a stop, so we found a lovely paddock with a few to have lunch just before we hit the big hill through the pine forest. As we slowly made our way up the hill the cicadas were so loud and the smell of pine so strong, it was quite lovely. Oliver found the hill a little tough so needed a tow towards the end. It was such a hot day that once again the road was ‘popping’ like bubble wrap, its quite a cool sound. The tar heats up so much that when you ride over it it will pop.
By the end of the big hills my legs were starting to feel it so we had a rest in the shade to prepare for the final 11km stretch, knowing there was still 1 big hill to go. We hit the gravel and Patrick and I powered on up the hill which felt great. At the top we waited for Rhys, Arthur and Oliver, Patrick found a piece of rope and enjoying some ‘fishing’ while we waited. Big cheers when we saw Rhys, Arthur and Oliver and after a quick drink stop we all were excited for the apparently 7km of downhill to the point.
It did not end up being downhill, we were met by hill after hill and far out, it got tough towards the end. Poor Patrick has run out of pedalling legs and was getting quite tired but on seeing the beach we were thrilled to finally arrive at Pouto Point. We camped at the Pouto Marine Hall which was built in 1884 as was New Zealand’s first custom building, it was a beautiful hall made of Kauri wood.
It felt like quite a reunion when we arrived, as so many of our new riding friends were already there which made for a very fun evening. However the day caught up with us, Patrick asked to go to bed and when the other two heard this they ran into the tent also to listen to the book. Patrick was asleep within minutes, Arthur was not far behind. Oliver took little longer to give into the sleep. Rhys and I enjoyed an evening walk to the jetty, it was a beautiful evening and so calm.
14/1/26 Pouto Point to Hellensville. 40km by ferry!!! 3.58km by bicycle (374.26km).
After our big day yesterday we enjoyed a restful morning around the campsite waiting for the ferry that was due in at 2. Oliver and Arthur learnt a new card trick and plied their craft on the host of riders who were now gathering at the campsite.
We filled our morning with diary writing, card games, walks on the beach, swims and of course, slowly packing away our tent. It was great to spend some more time with the cyclists that we had been sharing the road with over the last 10-12 days and also meet some new faces as they made a big push from Dargaville that morning to be able to catch the Ferry today.
Finally at around 1:45 we saw the approach of the Kewpie 2, the Kaipara cruises vessel and the ferry that would squeeze our bikes in and transport us the 4km across the Kaipara harbour to Parakai. We headed down to the beach and the ferry pulled up on the sand, dropped a ramp and we all helped load around 20 bicycles onto the top deck of the boat. The Tandems were classed as too big for the top deck so were loaded on last and stayed on the main deck, lashed to the side in case the Kaipara harbour had something to throw at us. Thankfully the crossing was near flat, and the 3 hours went rather quickly.
While crossing though we found that there was now no more campground at Parakai, which threw a bit of a spanner in our plans. We had hoped to stay there for the next two night in order to allow the kids (and adults) to enjoy the hot springs/pool/hydra-slide complex that the Geothermal town of Parakai is known for. Once again though Lady Luck shon on us in the form of the ferry operator who offered for us to stay at the cruising and sport fishing club in Hellensville for only $30 a night. We were grateful and relieved we had found a solution and accepted her offer.
The ferry docked and the unloading process began. Soon we were saying goodbye to all our new cycling friends and wishing each other well on their respective journeys southwards. We reflected how lucky we have been to find a closeness and acceptance that resides within the cycle touring community. A WhatsApp group was formed so we could keep each other updated with any upcoming challenges and also swap celebratory finishing photos when the time came.
Team Roarpedallers loaded up the tandems and headed off to the cruising club, thankfully for somewhere sheltered to pitch the tent due to an unfavourable weather forecast for tomorrow. Our planned rest day was looking like a very good option. We treated ourselves to takeaway pizza for dinner and even shouted ourselves a couple of beers from the micro brewery down the road (our first since New years) and ate down but he river, overlooking the relative calm of the marina and the hodgepodge of launches that were either only just floating or still bellied out on the mud due to the tide.
