2000 Biking New Zealand

Day 18, 25 December 2000, Monday
Taihape – Taupo; Hitched 140km, cycled 5km, Sunset Backpackers, $42

What an unexpectedly great day – despite ambivalence and nostalgia!

Charl and I slept long and hard and awoke for a change without using the alarm. It was a chilly, windy morning, threatening rain. We got ourselves together, planning to cycle the 500m up Old Abattoir Road to SH1, and hitch if possible a ride there to Taupo. I was wildly optimistic about our ability to get a ride on Xmas morning, bikes ‘n all; Charl unusually pessimistic. I suspect my optimism was desperation in disguise, but what the hell. We found a good hitching spot just opposite the Motor Camp road with a long line of sight for vehicles approaching from Taihape and a place to pull over. And positioned our bikes where they and we would be clearly visible. And stood there with very mixed emotions. Happy about the possibility of a rest day – the first since Wanaka two weeks back; concerned about what we would do if we could not get a lift – there is literally nowhere to stay between Taihape and Turangi 88km north (Waiouru’s accommodation is closed for Xmas); ambivalent about ‘giving up’. Charl even suggested I should hitch and he should cycle and meet me in Taupo. I was not too keen on us being separated and I think by day’s end Charl was pleased he did not have to face the Desert Road alone – especially in a northerly wind blowing strongly enough to lay the tufty grass flat on the dusty earth. So there we stood watching white and grey clouds scudding toward us across a pale blue sky. And amusing the local cow population with Xmas carol snippets – We Three Kings and Jingle Bells.

There was not much traffic on the road – and even less traffic that was capable of carrying two not-small adults and two laden bicycles. Despite which we were warmly ensconced in a camper van with Alex the painter/decorator within half an hour of first sticking out a hopeful thumb.

Alex had arisen on Xmas morn and made the spontaneous decision to join his sister for the festive season after all. He had started out somewhere south of us and was heading somewhere north of Taupo. So one lift got us exactly where we wanted to be – wild optimism notwithstanding!

Alex was mad. His van was unbelievably untidy. Filled with the tools of his trade and toys for the holidays – fishing rods etc. And with debris. With some effort on the part of all three of us we managed, however, to clear seating for two and space for two laden bicycles. And then we were off. Alex drove like a madman. Way too fast for the conditions and the condition of his van. We really feared for our safety and were doubly glad not to be on that road on that day on our bikes with Alex approaching from the rear – he would undoubtedly have wiped us out! He stopped briefly at Waiouru (with its army museum and base) to fill up with petrol and buy something to eat and drink, and then rushed us through the Rangipo Desert: wild, cold, exposed, windswept, the Desert Road often closed in winter because of snow. Where only the base of the three volcanoes (Mt Ruapehu (2 797m high, last eruption 1995), Mt Tongariro (last eruption 1926) and Mt Ngauruhoe) on our left were visible through the mist. Wild horses still roam here apparently – although a number of them were recently culled; and the army uses the area as a training ground.

Then through Turangi and along the east shore of Lake Taupo, at 606-square km the largest lake in New Zealand and great for trout fishing apparently. Lake Taupo was formed by an enormous (one of the largest ever, they say) volcanic explosion in 186AD when dark skies and blood-red sunsets were reported as far as Rome and China.

Alex dropped us on the lake edge in Taupo where kids were feeding black swans and some brave souls were swimming. And we said our grateful goodbyes. En route to our accommodation we met a young coloured couple from the Cape who have been in New Zealand for three years. They were desperately homesick and asked us to “soen die grond” when we got back. I would think they would find it hard to settle, their culture being quite different. Shame!

Before leaving South Africa I had asked the owner of the Sunset Backpackers to find a place for us to have Xmas lunch. She was not around when we arrived, but the Maori family who manage the place settled us into our room and kind Harriet offered to drive us to Cobb & Co after a quick shower and change into something smarter ie earrings!

And so we spent our afternoon sitting outside under an umbrella protected from both the odd quick shower and the intermittent hot sun, and dined in splendour on seafood chowder / cream of pumpkin & bacon soup, mushroom stack, oven-baked ham & grilled pineapple / cajun-grilled Dory (a type of fish) on creamed spinach with pesto & salsa & sautéed potatoes, buffet desserts including pavlova and berry mousse, all washed down with Australian wine. Yum. Our cute moffie waiter got progressively more pissed during the course of the afternoon, and progressively more camp. And a mossie came to peck at the remains of our meal. And were very pleased indeed to be just where we were eating dessert instead of tackling the desert. But sad for all that.

We hitched back ‘home’ with a woman who had just heard that her brother-in-law had been in a quite serious accident and was lying in a coma in Taihape. She had just dropped her daughter with her mom and was headed south. I’m not sure why she picked us up – maybe she thought we were going further and would be company on the road, maybe she just needed someone to tell. She was very weepy and shaken – shame.

We did our washing, conversed for awhile with a retired Brit who had decided to travel the world with his silent, older wife (who could have been quite interesting, but who liked unfortunately to hold court – in fact we could hear him still bending fellow-travellers’ ears long after we had gone to bed. He had had little education; a truck driver who had made good and self-taught philosopher. With muddled working-class values and unspecified guilts at having succeeded in life.), and watched Scrooge with Bill Murray on the telly.

And so a Merry Xmas! it was.