Cloudy morning with a light mist as we started out on the Hauraki Rail Trail. We could bike to the trail from our cottage which was great.
This trail is advertised as family friendly, suitable for even the little tykes that are just off their training wheels. As long as the tykes are riding some itty bitty mountain bikes, we agree! The trail started off very easy and even had spray paint on the tree roots to call them out
We got to experience a new kind of cattle guard and the occasional closed gate that you have to get off and open
but the scenery is really lovely
As you can see in the following photo the Hauraki Trail, like almost all trails in New Zealand, is crushed stone and gravel. We have seen workers from the Department of Conservation out in the parks and along the trails. It seems like they just laid down fresh gravel in a number of spots along the Hauraki Trail. The bike wheels can get a little “sticky” in the fresh gravel. Fortunately our bikes have really fat tires and some low gears so no damage other than some mental cursing.
The trail has a 1km long tunnel which was a lot of fun. It has dim lighting in the roof and between that and some bike lights we were fine
So back to those little tykes without training wheels. Let’s hope they tired and turned around after the tunnel. We were riding to Wahai, 24 KMs from Paeroa. After the train station in Waikino, the trail got a bit more interesting with many ups and downs and a much thicker layer of gravel for the final 8 or 9 kms to Wahai. Some places where walking the bike was a really good idea and definitely some more mental cursing.
Sometimes, you just hit the jackpot! A bit of a cold rain started up not too long before Wahai and as we pulled into the station we realized that it was only about 15 minutes before the single daily run of the train back to Waikino. Woo hoo!
We got tickets, loaded the bikes on and had a very nice ride in the company of a classic cars group that was having an outing. Back at the Waikino station we all had lunch together in the cafe when they invited us to join them at their table.
That left us with just about 15 kms back to Paeroa and that was a very good thing as it was now raining in earnest and I for one was mighty wet and cold. The tunnel is about halfway between the station at Waikino and Paeroa. It was nice to get out of the rain when we entered the tunnel. This time we encountered and squeezed past two people walking through the tunnel. Right after the tunnel you cross a bridge over the highway.
On the other side it definitely seemed warmer and the rain had nearly stopped. The rest of the ride back into town went by quickly.
Back at the cottage we did some laundry and walked into town to pick up some supplies. A nice small town main street with a good variety of shops, a modern looking library, and a separate toy library which turns out to be a nationwide thing, and a really excellent idea: http://www.toylibrary.co.nz/.
Tomorrow we’re off to Rotorua.
I can only imagine that there was an incident which necessitated this sign:
