North Island Bike Trip Pt 3

We left Gisbourne on Tuesday 7th of May and headed around The East Cape of New Zealand. Unfortunately it had been raining in the night and was forecast for rain clearing to showers during the day, intrepid, we set off. The road was winding and plagued with lots of logging trucks, add to this the rain and it was a pretty miserable ride. The logging trucks threw up lots of spray as they went past, blinding Paul temporarily, but He soldiered on at a rather sedate pace due to the slippery roads. We stopped at Tolega Bay to admire the longest Wharf in New Zealand, unfortunately as we started down the wharf a squall came through, so we high tailed it back to the public toilets for shelter. We continued on with improving weather and reached Hicks Bay, were we decided to stay at the Hicks Bay Motel  Lodge. It is a very old fashioned place, with rooms harking back to the 50's. We had a lovely stay, with dinner at the restaurant and breakfast over looking the Pacific Ocean.
Wednesday we continued on around East Cape to Whakatane. This is a truly beautiful part of the country, with magnificent sea views, pleasant roads and White Island smoking in the distance. We reached Whakatane and booked into the back packers, then we caught up with our daughter Hollie and the Grandchildren.
We left Whakatane on Thursday heading for home, the weather forecast was looking pretty shitty, with a heavy rain warning out for the Northland area. We both wanted to get home, and get ready for work the following week. We made it back by about 3pm, the rain got us only for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, so by the time we got home we were dry, but very glad to dismount and rest our weary bones.
We have both started back at work again, the first week has been hard getting back into the early starts 5.30am. Again we plan to work for another 8-9 months then we will be off again on another adventure either by yacht or bike, who knows where we might end up.

Tolega Bay Wharf.

Hicks Bay from the deck of our Motel room, that's me blocking the view. 

Paul and His horsey mate, East Cape