Day 2 - Te Keo to Ahipara 42km
Day 3 - Ahipara to Whangaroa Harbour 54km
Day 4 - Whangaroa Harbour to Pahia 59km
Day 5 - Pahia to Whangarei 71km
So so much has happenend in the past 5 days. We have skated some absoulutely brutal roads; the worst surface I have ever seen, some of the craziest downhills (just under 70kmh so far) and met some of the best people.
On Day 1 we drove up to the Cape Lighthouse and took a few pictures, Adam did a couple of backflips and we headed south to where the gravel stopped and the road started. Beautiful clear empty hills and 23km later we stopped, buzzing from skating the first day. We camped right on the beach and went swimming in the sea.
Day 2 introduced us to the legendary NZ 'Chipseal' - basically rocks stuck in tarmac. We also got used to blasting hills and managed to get to Ahipira. We camped in the nearest town, ate chinese and met a cool girl Maori called Ata who we taugh to skate.
Day 3 was yet more hills, really big ones. We skated through some beautiful little places and jumped in rivers. We made it to a campsite and got to see an amazing sunset over the harbour. We had a mini skate session with all the kids from the campsite in the morning and headed south.Day 4 was about getting to Pahia for lunch. Sheldon took the day off so it was Nat and Adam all the way. Julia met us for a beer and is hanging about for a while. Pahia is a really pretty place, right in the middle of the Bay of Islands. We camped by the sea and woke up the next day for the 70+ km to Whangarei.
Day 5 (yesterday) was a big one. We managed to get the 70km done but started to witness some of the NZ driving we have to get used to. Trucks, crazy overtaking and some huge, huge hills. The traffic became more of a problem as we headed into town and we happily had a few beers in town last night. Rather bizarrely, Kari found a 2 page article all about the trip in a paper as we were leaving the pub. We also got eaten alive by mosquitos
Today we have shopped, done the tourist thing (Nat, Julia and Adam climbed under a waterfall) and hooked up with Derwin and Anthea (owners of the local skateshops) where we are staying at the moment.
Tomorrow we have press photography at somepoint on the road and the editor of a NZ skate/surf/snowboard magazine is going to catch up with us too.
Happy days.
x
Got to go to sleep. So will post more soon.
