Are You Sure?

People don't know what they're taking about.

At least two people who I talked to said the bus to Kerikeri is small (true), but they also said that the bus will have a trailer for my bike (not true). The trailer is actually for everyone's luggage, whereas my bike went in the "boot." I'm just happy that my bike is on the bus and I'm hoping my bike survives the ride unscathed.

Mike, the manager of the hostel that I slept at last night (who was one of the two who told me about the trailer), told me it's about 100 km to Kerikeri, which it is, but he then said, "I suppose that would take you about a day." I think it would take me about 4 hours if I rode that without stopping, since I rode 83 km of the same route two days ago and averaged 27 km/hour. Normally, however, I would ride a max of about 50 km before stopping, but that time I just felt like getting to Kaitaia (which is 8 km south of Awanui and therefore not along my actual route) as fast as possible, since there wasn't much of anything to see or do along the way...

A lot of single-lane bridges... Not sure what's up with that. Surely they can build the roads in those parts so that they have two lanes...

John, who owns(?) the hostel I stayed at two nights ago, told me (when I talked to him on the phone prior to cycling up) that the road leading to the place was gravel (true), but he also said, "The first two kilometers are gravel, the next two kilometers are sealed, and the last two kilometres are gravel again." Dude, with the exception of about two sections of about 300 meters each, the whole thing is a bloody unsealed mess and is 6 kms, not 5. John also said something like, "It's really not that bad. Most of the gravel is gone because there's been so much traffic riding over it." Fat chance. Like I said, it was bloody awful. Funny how, the next day when I told him how bad it was, he changed his story: Yeah, it's usually not that bad at this time of year, but lately it's gotten quite bad..."

Guide books suck... There's so much non-touristy stuff out there, you know?

People ask me if I was prepared for all the hills, as if New Zealand is the only place in the world with hilly roads... I guess most people just want flats, so they don't have to make any effort. I actually enjoy the climbing, unless it's just endless, big climbs. Most of what there is here is just short ups, perhaps 500-1000 meters. In Japan, where I started riding, there are plenty of climbs that are a good 5-10 kilometers. Now that's climbing!