I mentioned yesterday that our Air BNB driveway was steep. Photos seem to show angles accurately, but I assure you this has a 28 percent pinch…the second photo is me walking my bike down to the road with Tony looking back up.

I probably should have entitled this ride something to do with the letter S.

As you can see from the map, we weaved around. From Whangerei to Tutukaka there is a direct route, but to see more, and add more km to our day, we decided to head out via the Town Basin towards Whangarei Heads following the shoreline of Whangarei Harbour.

The ride undulated all day but was quite pleasant despite the wind.

At the top of one of our earlier climbs we met Peter, from Linz in Austria. He is doing his very first cycle tour. I love this aspect of touring, meeting people with similar mind sets and passions, comparing notes on where they have been, where they are heading, their gear set up and so on.

There were some early delightful views looking towards the coast.

There were numerous signs reminding people to keep dogs on leads to protect the kiwi, and other simple reminders such as this one.

Parua Bay village was small, but seemed to have a number of cafes, but we pushed on heading away from Whangarei Heads in a north easterly direction towards Pataua South.

Pataua South is a small village on the shores of an estuary, with a sandy surf beach behind.

The road came to an end but there was a foot bridge connecting to Pataua North. Here I am walking my bike across the bridge.No cafes, so we pulled up on the banks of the river to have a snack and enjoy the view.

The road weaved around heading back towards the outskirts of Whangarei. We finally found a cafe! The Black Stump at Glenbervie.

A nice cold fruit smoothie went down a treat!

Another climb and a lookout.

Before heading to our accomodation (for the next 3 nights) we rode down into Tutukaka to see what was where!

Climbed back up the hill, and turned into more hills before finding a steeper driveway than this mornings! I seem to have an incredible knack for selecting accomodation involving steep hills.

The Bach is a cubby house on the shores of Kowharewa Bay. This first picture is the view from our little deck.

Kids playing in the bay.

One final view.

I’ve got to stop writing. The mosquitos are liking me too much, and I should go inside!!

Thanks for reading, catch you tomorrow.