January 24 - Tairua to Waihi - 69 km

A more complete report on yesterday's action - back in the saddle after a day off.  A good day for biking - not a lot of sun, and mostly not too much wind.

-Last view of Tairau

We peddled down through Whangamata (the 'WH' is pronounced 'f', so its 'Fung-a-mata').  Its another small town on the Cormandel - the main street is one storey shops, the police station is smaller than our garage.  But plenty of character and an awesome steak and cheese pie.

Our typical day is yoghurt and bananas at the hostel, pack up and hit a bakery for a goodie and then hit the road.  We made it to Whangamata by 10 am, so we had an early lunch (the pie), stopped at the bike shop for route advice (and a free power bar) and headed on.  Another hill just before Waihi (235 meters) and the only down side to the day - the headwind was so strong we had to peddle downhill!

-See!  I told you it had rained around here!
We picked up some veggies and a jug of grape juice (!) and made dinner at the motor camp where we stayed.  No tenting yet because we were in a tiny little unit, which is just fine for us.

Waihi is a mining town with a huge open pit mine gold right in town, although you can't see it until you are right on the lip of the pit.  The mine opened in the early 1900's, closed in the 50's, and re-opened when gold prices went up in the 80's.  It, and a smaller underground operation are still going.  Later this century, when the pit shuts down, they intend to turn it into a lake.

More photos:

-Some sort of succulent plant in Whangamata

-View of the road from near the top of the day's last hill. We watched a fellow on a motorbike and a couple of dogs (Border Collies or Aussie Cattle Dogs) move a herd up the hill.  Fascinating to watch the dogs work.  Note the windy road.

-A view up the main street of Waihi.  Note what remains of the original headframe for the mine in the distance.

My GPS records a rather interesting statistic called "Total Ascent" which is the total of all the hills we have climbed in a day.  There were three two hundred meter hills on the route and a bunch of smaller hills.  In all, our total ascent was1006 meters, the first time on the trip we have broken the kilometer mark.  There are way more hills to go!