A wee stroll before morning tea
Date: 5 March 2024
Logistics and meteorology made a short day necessary, with an early start, and it worked out brilliantly when we coincided with our good mates, Kevin and Sarah, in time for a very good coffee (l’Affare no less) at the On The Spot Pukeko Cafe & Store at Harihari. We sat outside, pretending it was warm enough despite the fresh snow on the nearby tops.
We were too early for the hotel, so settled into the outside deck at the cafe with our bikes, sheltered from the last showers, and swapped lies with some genuine Tour Aotearoans who are on about their 15th day, doing what we have done in 38. There’s a 70-year-old a couple of days ahead of us who has been camping all the way – very impressive, but I’m very glad I’m neither young nor macho enough to feel the need to do the same. They’re a lovely, happy mob though.
By the way – if you’re heading south from Ross take a right turn into Bold Head Rd, just south of the Mikonui River, where we enjoyed a very quiet, flat 12 km gravel road with the ocean on one side and the first views of snow on the Alps on the other, before rejoining the highway at Kakapotahi.
Supplies: Harihari Store & Cafe
Accommodation: Hotel Harihari
These videos are best viewed on a computer screen. Turning your phone sideways helps.
Max elevation: 112 m
Min elevation: 1 m
Total climbing: 396 m
Total descent: -383 m
Total time: 02:46:24
Battery use: 58% | 360Wh M