After breakfast, we drive back to the Westin hotel, where we are staying tonight. We dropped off the car and headed to the Ferry Terminus to catch the 9am ferry to the Island of Waiheke, where the bike event was set to start.
There were no spectators or bunting, probably due to the fact that only Fiona and I were in the event!
We struggled to find the bike rental shack. Once located, nobody could be found to rent us some mountain bikes. After going back to the ferry terminus and then back to the bike shack, someone arrived and we rented a couple of bikes.
Fiona had decided that cycling to a place called Stoney Batter could be good, as there was good hiking to he had. So, we started our bike journey.
Within a few minutes we hit our first hill. It went on for a while before dipping down to the coast before going back into a steep hill. This pattern of steep hill with steep decline continued for three hours!
Some of the hills were so steep, they were both painful and very slow to climb. We eventually hit dirt roads which also went up and down, up and down. After three and a half hours, we decided we would not be able to reach our destination in time. We need to catch the 4pm ferry back to Auckland as we are meeting Fiona’s university friend in town at 6.30pm.
We sat down for a few minutes, ate some ham, took some pictures and then set off back. On the way back, Fiona thought it would be good to use a different coastal route. This route turned out to be even harder. We met up with some chaps who we had seen at the bike rental hut earlier in the day. They were from Singapore although one was American. They were faster than us, which really hurt!
We ended up at Palm Beach Bay, where we had a cup of coffee. We set off up the hills yet again. Eventually we had to get off the bikes as the hills were simply ridiculous.
We saw some wonderful feathered friends, a small bird with a bright yellow head and some brightly colored parrots, which we were far to quick for us to photograph.
We wanted to taste some of the local wines, but the vineyards were at the top of another huge hill. We just managed to climb it, collapsing in the wine tasting room of Cable Bay Vineyards. The wine lady was very understanding, giving us water to quench our thirst.
After regaining our breath, we tasted seven of the wines they produce. Very good indeed, so good in fact, that we ended up purchasing six bottles, four Rose and two Chardonnay.
The problem now was to get them back to the port. We managed to stuff the bottles into our back packs and set off down the hill to the port.
We arrived in time to meet the chaps from Singapore. There was nobody at the cycle shack, so we used our chains and popped the keys into the letter box. We jumped on the ferry exhausted. This island is NOT ideal for cycling at all. It is very pretty with some wonderful, new, contemporary houses being built in the costal areas.
We staggered back to the hotel, checked in and relaxed in the massive bath for as long as possible, before dressing and walking across Auckland to a Thai restaurant where we met Elaine and her husband Steve.
We had an enjoyable evening with them, catching up on 19 years for life. The last time we met was in a Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh, just before they left to live in NZ. They came back to our hotel for coffee where we chatted for ages. They eventually had to go as Elaine had to be in work for 7am the next morning.
Elaine mentioned that they would love to visit Europe, especially Italy, so we hope to see them again soon.
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