Stillwater to Miranda

Day 8 - Friday 05 March 2010

Dist: 87 km. Av. Speed: 22.5 km/hr. Cal: 1930. Ride Time: 3 hrs 56 min

Very early start this morning! Shelley and I left for the Gulf Harbour to Auckland Ferry at 6 o’clock. The 7am ferry ride to the city was really nice as the sun rose above Great Barrier Island and later, Rangitoto. Butsy was at the ferry terminal as arranged and had already scoped out a breakfast joint and our next ferry tickets around to Half Moon Bay.

Today’s breakfast choice was ‘Mecca’ overlooking the yachts in the Viaduct Basin. Great choice - with a great NZ breakfast ranking of 9. Very nice indeed with a setting that’s always hard to beat.

We jumped on the Fuller’s ferry at 9.15 and sailed via Rangitoto to Half Moon Bay. After stocking up with food for the journey ahead it was off up the hill to negotiate the traffic as we escaped the city towards Whitby. Once we broke the suburban boundary the riding was really good. It’s obviously a well used cycle track and it’s easy to see why as you wind and climb and descend on to Clevedon. Clevedon seemed like a good place for a cuppa, but unfortunately ‘The Singing Cowboy’ was playing outside the café but Slim Dusty isn’t quite our music of choice. We met an Aussie couple (from Noosa) at the café who just raved about New Zealand - they reckoned it’s the best kept secret in the world and we should keep it that way.

The next milestone was Kawakawa Bay - our halfway point for lunch. The riding just got better as the day went on and the scenery was great as we got further and further from the city. Seeing the southern end of the Hauraki Gulf from a high point indicated we were approaching Kawakawa Bay and we rolled on down the hill to the picnic spot. Kawakawa Bay is just beautiful - what a pity about the signs saying “Danger - Polluted Water, No Swimming”.

We just had to sample the hokey pokey ice cream at the store, then tackled the rise up out of the bay and on to the Kaiaua Coast.

We nearly equalled the speed record we set on day 3 - maxing out at 77.5 km/hr down one descent.

This section is another spectacular cycle and views from the tops are brilliant. It was cloudless and hot as we descended down to the Firth of Thames for a short break before charging down the coast road to Miranda.

Today was the most spectacular day so far both in terms of the scenery and the cycling and Butsy and I had a fantastic day as our highest average speed so far indicates.

Tonight was something a bit different as we were picked up at the campground and drove on to Ngatea to support the kids in a local duathlon. It was a great event and the kids did really well with Anna picking up a silver medal in the junior women’s division. After the event we grabbed food and went back to Miranda for a soak in the hot pools.

It was great to catch up with family and friends again - and thanks for coming over Eddie and Karen.