Wellsford to Stillwater

Day 6

Wed 03 Mar. 2010

Dist: 82 km.

Av. Spd: 18 km/hr.

NRG: 1604 Cal.

Ride Time: 4 hrs 31 min

The breakfast ‘bar’ just got raised! Pepper’s Café in Wellsford popped out an 8.5 this morning. Nice muesli and great poached eggs on Vogel’s bread toast - simple yet superb and delivered with probably the best service yet. And that followed one of the best dinners so far on Tuesday night too… Tangiers Mediterranean Café just across the road from Pepper’s in Wellsford is well worth the stop. Wonderful food and again served with a smile and friendly conversation.

Stewart arrived at the motel on schedule this morning and we headed down SH 16 via the Kaipara Harbour towards Kaukapakapa. Shelley had recommended this route to get us off SH 1 and it was a great call. It’s a nice scenic drive with very little traffic and is a road I’d never travelled before.

It’s a bit lumpy for the first 30 or 40km coming out of Wellsford and I was bit worried that Stewart might not be enjoying himself when he declared that he’d never ridden a bike more than 15km before! I needn’t have been concerned, he’s a legend off-road runner and his only worry was that he hadn’t fully recovered from the 41km mountain run he’d done on the weekend!

I had hoped Kaukapakapa would deliver an unexpected pleasant surprise like Maungatoroto… I was disappointed! The general store had some good food and the public toilets were clean though.

After Kaukapakapa we picked up our average speed as the grade flattened and we took advantage of the tail wind. Traffic (and vehicle value) increased dramatically too as we drew closer to the King’s Barn Café at Silverdale for coffee with Almo. Great fruit cake and coffee, and a nice atmosphere enhanced by Almo’s waitress friend, a friendly Bulgarian lady.

The final peddle in to Stillwater was pretty nice and Shelley greeted us with cold beer and mussels - the perfect finish to another brilliant day.