A Ride in the Forestry

Fri 29th March Good Friday
 We decided today was the day to try to go as far as the Waiuku forest. The ride to the forest was easy but from there we stumbled upon a new road with large gravel stones. A nightmare to ride upon except that it was downhill through the sand dunes and trees. We stopped when we saw the river and went and ate our sandwiches on the beach.  The black sand glistened in the sun which complimented the sparkling water.  Bleached driftwood was scattered along the beach dotted with oyster shells and rotten fish heads.  Only in New Zealand are we able to go to such a beach on a sunny good Friday without sharing it with a single person.

After lunch we carried on down the road and got hopelessly lost. At one point we lifted our bikes over a gate (well Ed did the lifting) and found ourselves in the mine site itself. We had to turn around and go back.  Google maps showed roads and told us which we were on but didn't tell us which we could access and which were fenced off. I was not at all happy at the thought of retracing our tracks uphill on that horrible gravel road so  we found ourselves going up several dead ends, before eventually discovering a beautiful lane overhung with trees which promised to take us out of the forest. At the end we had to lift the bikes over another gate and cut past NZ Steels mine-site helicopter pad to get to the road.  We had been in the forest for about 3 hours and were getting tired and worse for me my battery was threatening to go flat as I only had 2 indicator lights left.  We decided that if anyone from NZ steel were to confront us we would play the stupid old people card and play tired, lost and helpless.  Well I suppose to tell the truth really!

We got home no problems and I still had battery to spare.  As I was turning into the barn I hit the gravel and my back wheel slid out from underneath me ans I collapsed in a heap on the driveway.  Fortunately I wasn't going fast and only got a grazed knee.  We were both so exhausted we had to have a beer to recover.  We estimate we covered about 40km on that ride.