Some where to kaiaua
Some where to kaiaua
Long hard day on the road today – after packing up I ride on roads to paeroa – so why roads and not the cycle trail one might wonder? Well for a number of reasons.. My recumbent trike don’t like gravel that much (including the low hanging rear derailleur ) and with the 5 wheels on the ground it can be very slow on gravel roads and trails – there is a fair amount of anti-motorbike barriers to get the trike and trailer around as well as lots of narrow cattle stops to bump over (can be a tight fit at times) – some of the foot bridges on the trail can be hard on the trike and lastly but not less just for a change (note I have done the trail a number of times over the years including on the trike earlier this year) the roads are not super busy so are fine for me to ride on with the trike
In paeroa I stock up on food (first good supermarket since rotorua with the route I used) before heading towards kopu stopping for a few rest/photo breaks including at hikutaia at the little shop/Cafe there - the road is a mix of rolling hills and flat as it runs between the hills and the hauraki plans/swamplands
At kopu I turn onto S.H.25 riding over the some one new kopu bridge looking over the the old one lane kopu bridge (what has one of the spans of the old bridge that used to turn to let boats pass) as the river was once used by boats up river to paeroa - at 463 m long it was the longest one lane bridge on a state highway and oldest (built 1928 - also one of the busy’s with with a Ave of 9000? vehicles a day using the bridge – what lead to long delays at holiday times) the swing span is 43 m long and when it was opened had a 15 m wide channel to boats to pass through - at this point in time the old Bridge is closed to the public (thought that might change in the future – I’m not sure what is going to happen with the old bridge) the new bridge has a walk/cycle way on one side of the bridge (thought offen lots of broken glass/other rubbish on it at times)
on the west side of bridge I had a choice of taking the road or the cycle way – this part of the cycle way I have not done yet – after some thought and looking at the distances I decided to take the road as the cycle way adds another 10 km as it heads out to the river mouth and around the coast with the road more in Land
– riding until I get to a cafe (safe place to pull off the road for a break) I hear/feel the hub bolt go – it’s only a 10 to 15 minute job to swap out the broken bolt with a new one
then it’s back on the road – it’s slow going as I’m having some (disability related) leg issues today so my legs are not working that well and a strong head/side wind is not helping things at waitakaruru I head north on the road (sea bird coast) to Miranda and kaiaua – its near dark I finally get to kaiaua where there is a free camping spot (for both moterhomes and tents that I know of from one of my other rides up this way where I set up camp for the night as the sun sets – that was a hard day on the bike
Long hard day on the road today – after packing up I ride on roads to paeroa – so why roads and not the cycle trail one might wonder? Well for a number of reasons.. My recumbent trike don’t like gravel that much (including the low hanging rear derailleur ) and with the 5 wheels on the ground it can be very slow on gravel roads and trails – there is a fair amount of anti-motorbike barriers to get the trike and trailer around as well as lots of narrow cattle stops to bump over (can be a tight fit at times) – some of the foot bridges on the trail can be hard on the trike and lastly but not less just for a change (note I have done the trail a number of times over the years including on the trike earlier this year) the roads are not super busy so are fine for me to ride on with the trike
In paeroa I stock up on food (first good supermarket since rotorua with the route I used) before heading towards kopu stopping for a few rest/photo breaks including at hikutaia at the little shop/Cafe there - the road is a mix of rolling hills and flat as it runs between the hills and the hauraki plans/swamplands
At kopu I turn onto S.H.25 riding over the some one new kopu bridge looking over the the old one lane kopu bridge (what has one of the spans of the old bridge that used to turn to let boats pass) as the river was once used by boats up river to paeroa - at 463 m long it was the longest one lane bridge on a state highway and oldest (built 1928 - also one of the busy’s with with a Ave of 9000? vehicles a day using the bridge – what lead to long delays at holiday times) the swing span is 43 m long and when it was opened had a 15 m wide channel to boats to pass through - at this point in time the old Bridge is closed to the public (thought that might change in the future – I’m not sure what is going to happen with the old bridge) the new bridge has a walk/cycle way on one side of the bridge (thought offen lots of broken glass/other rubbish on it at times)
on the west side of bridge I had a choice of taking the road or the cycle way – this part of the cycle way I have not done yet – after some thought and looking at the distances I decided to take the road as the cycle way adds another 10 km as it heads out to the river mouth and around the coast with the road more in Land
– riding until I get to a cafe (safe place to pull off the road for a break) I hear/feel the hub bolt go – it’s only a 10 to 15 minute job to swap out the broken bolt with a new one
then it’s back on the road – it’s slow going as I’m having some (disability related) leg issues today so my legs are not working that well and a strong head/side wind is not helping things at waitakaruru I head north on the road (sea bird coast) to Miranda and kaiaua – its near dark I finally get to kaiaua where there is a free camping spot (for both moterhomes and tents that I know of from one of my other rides up this way where I set up camp for the night as the sun sets – that was a hard day on the bike
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