Interesting rocks

Bruce woke up before us others, had a morning walk and ate some breakfast. We all woke up quite early, and all agreed, that the tepee gave us very good sleep. We all finished our breakfast, before the last night's evergreens filled the kitchen. We packed the bikes, and I gave the last Tui beer can to one German guy sitting on the porch. I then asked the manager, if there are any gas stations on our way to Murupara. There would be at least two, so no worries. He warned us about some crazy rally driving locals, that often practise around the Lake Waikaremoana.

We had over 120 km gravel to go. I adjusted the chain, because it was loose, and on corrugations, and low rev riding it rattled. I also increased the rear suspension preload in order to get some more weight to the front wheel. The adjustment seemed to work, since before Tuai we already rode some ten kilometers of dirt, and the bike handled very well. The road was not too twisty, so I could maintain more speed, and more revs.

View over Lake Waikaremoana

We stopped along the Lake Waikaremoana many times, so beautiful it was... The first stop was at one small dam. We walked down to the lake, and just held our breaths watching those huge rocks. In many rocks the layer lines were vertical, so there must have been enormous natural forces turning this landscape upside down and forming this lake. Our next stop was when the road turned just on an edge of a cliff. There were no rails, there was only about 30 cm high concrete wall between the road and a 100 meter fall. Then the road ran around one bay, and on the both edges of the end of this bay there were 50 meter high waterfalls. No surprise, that this lake and its surroundings are very popular amongst hikers. The whole Urewera National park that we rode through is full of hiking courses.

Waterfall

The road was very twisty around the lake, but it straightened after it. The road was just fun to ride. After getting some revs, the baby Beemer started to spin and slide its rear end. I could steer it with the throttle. So we first rode faster, and then waited for Bruce, and his tourer. Then again rode faster, and waited. I always waited in an end of some straight, so when I saw his headlight, I accelerated again, and Bruce didn't need to stop to wait the dust to settle down.

But once when we waited, Bruce didn't appear. There had been couple of slippery curves a bit earlier, and I was afraid he had ridden off the road. I turned back, and boy was I relieved. There he stood aside a road with a flat rear tyre. Bruce had already tried to find the hole, but didn't success. I tried also, and found a tiny but visible hole in the bottom of the tyre pattern. Bruce had a set of tubeless repair plugs, and started to repair the tyre. While he was pushing the plug to the hole with a special tool, he pushed the bike off the center stand, and it fell down. In less than two seconds the bike was back up on its tyres again. Luckily the road edge was grassy, and there was no visible damage to the bike. We didn't even find any scratches.

Just one firm push...

The tyre was now repaired, but one thing was missing: the air. We had no pump whatsoever, so I went to a rest area nearby, where I had noticed a campervan parked. They neither did have a pump. I returned back. Then we stopped the next five passing cars, and no one had any kind of pump or air compressor. In the middle of nowhere no-one carries a pump. Strange. Then we remembered the three CO2 cartridges in the BMW toolkit. If they'd work, we'd at least get to the nearest service station in Ruatahuna, 15 km further. We wondered, how much these small cartridges can help, when the tyre is totally flat. There were too many too scientific persons around, so we started to calculate: Each cartridge contains 6g of CO2. You can get about 10 liters of CO2 gas out of them. (The molecular mass of CO2 is 12+2x16 = 44g/mol. 3 cartridges = 18g makes 0,4 mol. The volume of ideal gas in NTP is 22,4 l/mol, so 0,4 mol CO2 in 25 degrees Celsius would make pretty close to ten liters). Now when the bike was on its central stand unloaded, there was about one atmosphere pressure in the tyre, and adding 10 liters to it should easily do the job. After using the cartridges to the tyre, it felt pretty good, and Bruce rode in front of us to Ruatahuna. He stopped only once just in case to check the tyre.

I filled up in Ruatahuna. Meanwhile Bruce was checking his air pressure. The gas cost normally around one $NZ, but here it was 1,20. The poor young Maori lady who filled my tank converted the liters to dollars twice, and 11 liters cost 14,70. It was hard for her to calculate, and I was too tired to complain of two dollars. So I just paid it. It was really hot, so we ate ice creams, and continued again. After Ruatahuna I went again first, and we continued to Murupara. In Murupara we stopped again to a service station, since the pressure meter in Ruatahuna was so lousy, that Bruce wanted to check and adjust the pressure once more. Then we went to one tavern for a cup of coffee. The tavern was closed, but the owner asked what we wanted, and said that if it's only coffee, come in. So he made some coffee just for us, and offered some yesterday's cakes on the house. He also shut the door, so no other people would come in.

Mt Maunganui, Tero and Jenny

While having coffee we discussed how well we total strangers got along together. The biking is certainly one hobby that joins all kinds of people, and often it's very easy for bikers to get along with each other. While some media always talk about violencies, Hells Angels, and try to ban the whole hobby by laws, we are making friends through this hobby. There was not much more to say or do. We sighed, shook hands, and continued our own ways. Bruce and Svetlana were going to visit some relatives in Taupo, whilst we continued north along the Rangitaiki River valley.

The road in the other end of the river valley was cut, and we had to take a detour. We arrived to Te Teko, from where we continued to Matata through Otakiri. In Matata sh2 comes very close to the beach. Actually in the map you can barely distinguish it from the shoreline. But we were disappointed. Between the road and the beach there was a high bank full of bush and trees. So we didn't even see the beach. After the road turned to inland, we had a short break, and ate the rest of our food, since we were promised a dinner at Jenny's place, so we did not need to carry any food anymore.

We found Jenny's home easily according to the instructions she had given us. The welcome was very warm, like coming home from a long trip. We had a shower, and even got all of our clothes washed. After the shower, the dinner was waiting, and again we got new potatoes, yummy! Jenny has nice parents. They were also very interested of us visitors from far away. Jenny told us that when we had left Andrew's place in Palmy, Andrew had noticed this bag we left there with Elina's jacket and shorts. Andrew had asked Jenny to bring it with her. However, when Jenny was already an hour's drive from Andrew's place she noticed, that the bag was still at Andrew's. In the evening Jenny took us by car to the Mt. Maunganui beach and the yacht harbour. She told she had lived close to the beach almost all her life before moving to Australia. When we came back, Andrew called, and told that neither he nor Gavin will come north before we leave the country, so he promised to mail our stuff after us. I promised to leave some money to Jenny for the mailing costs. Then we had some evening tea, and went to sleep.