Nov 23: Long Ride – Tauranga to Paeroa

Leaving Tauranga: thanks for having us Paul & Claire

Day 12: Tauranga to Paeroa

The day started much the same as other days – re-acquainting butt with the bike seat, By now the butt sure gets sore enough after about 40 or 50 km, depending on the amount of variation in terrain, hence the amount of time spent off the pedals.

Main Highway: damn rumble strips....

In Tauranga the day started with high overcast cloud, no sign of the early morning showers that had been forecast. The sky cleared soon after we started out. Under a clear blue sky on a day that had already started with temperatures in the mid teens, the road soon warmed up so that riding on the black asphalt became unbearably hot in places.

Today’s route followed State Highway 2 for most of the day: Tauranga to Paeroa via Waihi. Accordingly the road was very busy with traffic. Noisy – very difficult for us to talk with each other while cycling because of the road noise. In fact, in the few periods when there was no traffic the silence was very noticeable.

Today’s route also won the prize for the most kilometres of “rumble strips” – which are a real hazard to cyclists. These are the strips of raised bumps – usually white – placed on or next to the white line on the left hand edge of the carriageway. You can see these in many of today’s photos. Their purpose is to warn motorists that their left hand side tyres are driving too close to the left side of the vehicle carriageway. Cyclists prefer to ride on the shoulder rather than in the main vehicle lane, because it is safer, and gives the trucks room to pass without knocking into cyclists.

At the Waihi quarry (no, we did not cycle down and back up)

But the demarcation between vehicle lane and shoulder is lined with these damn rumble strips. So if cyclists need to avoid a pothole or broken glass or move out of the shoulder lane at a bridge crossing for example, then they have to cross the rumble strips several times. Tricky on thin road tyres at the best of times – especially when travelling faster than 30 km/h. And in wet weather the strips are slippery, which makes them treacherous.

So today’s ride was busy with traffic, noisy (traffic) and had kilometre after kilometre of rumble strips. On the plus side, the shorter ride and more pleasant cycling conditions made today’s ride one of the more enjoyable of our trip so far. No really long or steep hills (would not have even registered on the Uphill Crap Factor – see earlier blogs for an explanation of this term).

Karangahake Gorge road

The ride through the pass between the east coast and Waihi was one of the highlights. Also the last few kilometres through the Karangahake Gorge to Paeroa. We stopped briefly at Waihi to look into that enormous hole in the ground (the opencast mine). Another day without flat tyres, but a minor adjustment was needed to the gear change mechanism on Keryn’s bike.

Conditions were not nearly as warm for cycling compared to yesterday, even though the temperature was much the same. Humidity was much lower than yesterday, and at the times when the sun was hottest there was usually a cooling breeze to accompany us. Sunburn was the biggest hazard (not something I usually have to think about when riding to work). I carried some extra drinking water with me today to avoid the dehydration problems from yesterday. Butt got quite sore at the usual 60 km mark (but less severe than yesterday because of the more varied terrain of today’s route. We were off the pedals more, and had more up and down rollercoaster hills to deal with. Legs seem to be coping with the ride so far. Distance itself is not an issue, but sustained effort (either on long steep hills or battling a headwind for hours) certainly takes its toll on the thighs.

We forgot to pack the scales, so none of us has weighed ourselves since we started the ride to see if our weight has changed. But we expect we have all put on weight in spite of the miles covered thanks to the generous supply of baking from Keryn’s mum and from Adie Fortuin (thanks for the chocolate brownies Adie).

Stats for Day 12 of the Long Ride: total trip was 78.5 km, with a total cycling time of 3 hrs 15 mins (more than an hour less cycling time than yesterday). The average speed was 23 km/h.

Arrival at Karangahake Gorge