Day 3 - Mangonui to Matauri Bay

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Son of a beach, bloody hill -

We left late at 11am. The damn lodge was just too comfortable. At least the sun was out. It was a pretty uneventful ride. The only bizzare event was seeing a man sleeping in a paddock next to a fence. His dog was tied up so I figured he probably was okay. But I turned around to see if that was the case anyway. He jumped up out of the grass rather quickly. Perhaps he was supposed to be working.

For the remainder of the 30 km back along the same road to the Kaeo turnoff I was entertained by Ben once again making baa sounds at the sheep, then imitating what they were saying back to him. He also noted the vast amount of cows, which seemingly inspired him also to moo at them. Well, when I say cows, Ben was using that word loosely. so I asked him if he'd like to drink the milk of those cows. ha ha ha.

After doing most of the kms for that day we reached the coastal road, over to what I was hoping, would soon be a beach. It was good for our state of minds not knowing what was ahead. We had given it a good honest try to ascertain the elevations the evening before when planning the route, obviously not overthinking it. However, there is just one lesson to be learnt from the ride over to Matauri Bay, and that is the scenic route always involves some hills. Big hills in this case. I found myself saying "where is that son of a beach?" as I was painfully hauling up the heavy load on yet another bloody hill.

Finally we hit the top of the biggest hill. We gratefully accepted the reward of 180 degree sea views and then a snippy ride down the other side. At Taiaue Bay we took a long, long, rest stop. In fact there was some beach napping going on. In plain view to us was the next long steep hill to cross the last 5km to Matauri Bay.

Reluctantly we dragged our worn out selves off the lovely warm sand and dug out our last reserves of energy to start the hill climb. It was so steep that we had to do the hill in sets. I made up a mantra to deceive my brain from wanting to shut down access to my leg muscles, chanting myself along with every pedal push. It worked thankfully.

Soon the distance was covered as the top shop at Matauri Bay came into view. We stopped for some kai. Ben then made the suggestion that we should keep going to Kerikeri - another 2 hours away, while he wolfed down a burger and chips. I knew that his idea was purely to avoid having to ride down the hill to the campsite in return for another slog up the hill in the morning. I didn't question his manliness, I just said "No". I was too tired to even eat and my legs would have disowned me had I agreed to that. The only option at that point was going down and to rest. It was a done deal.

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Photos

View From the Top
The biggest hill but what a view at the top!