Category Archives: posted by Florian

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Day 10 – Ta Moko

This was basically a rest day with one goal for the day: Visit Paitangi Ostick of Paitangi Art & Ink.

Some of you probably know that I have been thinking about getting tattooed for a long while. I was thinking of going to the same Auckland artist that got Nina hers from, but it never came together.

Just before we were leaving on our trip now, we saw a documentary on the waka huia youtube channel about this impressive artist up in Northland. So we took the chance and send her an email yesterday to see if it would work out this time.

I got lucky and it so worked out that we could spend a day with her, her lovely partner and the two resident Schäferhunde that also fit perfectly into our schedule.

The final result - copyright notice: this is not CC like the rest, as it is Paitangi's work and not mine to give.

The final result – copyright notice: this is not CC like the rest, as it is Paitangi’s work and not mine to give.

Paitangi was exactly the artist I could have hoped for for my first ta moko. And she is an amazing person to boot. I felt safe and had no doubt that the outcome would be what I have been looking for. The trip would have been worth it just spending a morning with two lovely people, though. We even got someone slightly re-infected with the motorcycle travel bug.

And that is how I ended up in a backpacker in Paihia with a lower leg mildly leaking black ink and drops of blood … and if you want to hear the story behind it, you can invite me to a beer when we next meet.

copyright notice: this is not CC like the rest, as it is Paitangi’s work and not mine to give.

Day 8 – Legging it

The tent, frozen, again!

The tent, frozen, again!

This time the forecast held true. Mostly, that is. We got to ride back the lovely gravel road from far north of the Coromandel in sunshine, that was true. The predicted temperature was slightly off, though: instead of the promised +2 degrees, the frost on our tent and bike indicated it was more towards -2.

We took our time going back, taking ample of photos missed yesterday due to rain or the setting sun. I got my mandatory fording action shot 🙂 Speaking of fords: two local Kiwi bikers on V-Stroms were mighty impressed with my report of “nah, they were not deep, maybe 20 cm” …

The last breather for sanity was once again the Driving Creek Cafe. This time fully in sunshine, no ifs or buts. They even had the fire going … ahhh.

The rest of the day was taken up by a 200 km push to get north past Auckland and a lot of weird people along the way and on the campground. Does Auckland attract crazy?

Day 5 – East

 

the island off the east cape

the island off the east cape

This is as far east as we will go on this trip. If and when we finally reach Frankfurt, we will almost be equal distance away from this place on earth regardless of looking west or east. It also happens to be as far as one can go on the North Island of New Zealand.

As for our day itself: It was a blast. I cannot understand why this region is not more popular and so much undersold. We had a glorious sunny and only mildly chilly day. The landscape reminds me of an enchanting mix of Scotland and the Bretagne. Steep cliffs, hills and paddocks, and then always coming back to the sea.

Tolaga Bay pier

The view back down the pier

Even though we had a late start, we walked down the pier at Tolaga Bay before lunch. We both enjoyed how the powerful surf was crashing against the steep limestone cliff on the one side and the brave lone surfer in it on the other.

Brief side note: Might have met the dumbest sheep yet. It took off from the road full tilt into a fence and got stuck in said fence rather comically.

Lunch alone on the beach at Tokomaru Bay. With Gisborne-grown ripe avocado on toast and local oranges for dessert. Sooooo good.

The absolute highlight though was the ride out to the East Cape lighthouse: Horses with their fowling and the cows with their calves, the surf always right there and the sun in the back down a beautiful gravel road. Later on, the ride back into the sunset was pure magic.

I am further pleased to report that I carried my GPS all the 135m / gazillion steps up to the lighthouse for proof and bragging rights …

Day 3 – The two sides of Aotearoa

Rain – lots of it. Last night on the ride here, all night and all morning. Plus grey skies and 300m visibility. We would not get our gear packed up remotely dry. The ride was also dodgy, the silt on the gravel roads becomes slick as soap.

Rocinante and our tent

Rocinante and our tent

So, a decision was made. Stick it out for one day, or at least until a pause in the rain gives us a chance to pack. And then, all went out again, when the DOC warden took pity on us and offered us a hut for a great price (budget is an issue for us now, especially in the “western world”). The hut was amazing! Warm, dry and enough space to spread our gear out to dry.

Te whenua also took pity and shooed the clouds away around 11am. It is hard to overstate what a difference the weather makes when one is so exposed to it all day. What set out to be a dreary and cold stake out between wet tent and cold public kitchen turned into a warm, sun-drenched dream.

The weather turned out to be so good in fact that we took off for 3 hours hiking the tracks around Waikaremoana Holiday Park. We explored some of the coolest waterfalls and had great vistas of the lake and surrounding mountainside.

t -1d

Here we are, finally. The night before this trip starts.

Again.

me in the same pose, 3 years apart

Weird deja vu …

To calm down and remind ourselves of all the mountains (at times literal ones) we have climbed before, we had one last browse of our photo archive. Especially the ones from 2012 before coming to NZ. This also led to a kind of escheresque inception moment that we do not want to keep from you.

This is the last night in our flat. Again, there is no furniture left. One pile of boxes awaiting to be shipped to the left, the old bedroom filled with all our travel gear.

Everything is set. Goodbyes have been said, things sold, jobs quit.

Tomorrow, the road …