Putorino > Napier

The lake Tutira (Wiki). The family’s mother, Catherine, told me that the road was mostly flat with a long easy hill before Napier but I haven’t experienced the same thing as she told me… I guess she has been driving on that road and never did it on a push bike 🙂

Phew! I’m about half way through that long easy hill. It is definitely steep and hard! I might reach the 350m altitude I think.

I’ve reached the top! As always I’m surrounded by sheep 🙂

Hey, the coast again :-). That down hill part was so good. I can see Napier in the background from here, I think…

Cold and rainy…

A dash of color in that greyish atmosphere.

Sheep… and cows of course!

This road feels way more attractive than the state highway 2 but I’m not sure if that’s going to be a dead end or not. I’ve seen a guy a minute ago. I’ll go ask him.

I was not recommended to use that quiet road along the sea shore but that guy told me that I will be able to get on something similar a bit further away. So for now, I’m back on the state highway 2. The first vineyards in sight. I’m definitively getting closer to Napier 🙂

Ah? This should be the road that guy told me about. Somewhere over there, there is an access to a concrete path following the beach until Napier. Pretty perfectly nice 🙂

Before continuing, I need some energy. A little sandwich is what I need. Hence, I have network on my phone! Finally! Time to answer your previous comments :-).

Back on track. Napier, I’m coming!

Look at his cycle way that I have just for myself. Very enjoyable.

The harbor.

The Napier sailing club.

Kennedy street, the main road. There should be a campsite somewhere around here.

Kennedy Park 🙂 I will stay here for at least one night to have a shower. After that I’m thinking of going back to the entrance of the city. I’ve seen lots of grass and toilets for free. Let’s see how is it here first.

This place is much better! When I went back along Kennedy street I saw a bicycle shop. That was a good opportunity to check the state of my chain. The guy announced me a good new and a bad one:

• The good news is: my chain is still ok so I don’t have to change it now.
• The really bad news is: my cassette is beyond dead.

When he said that it made total sense. For the passed  800km maybe, I heard a noise on my bike without being able to point it out exactly. When I was in Whakatane, I asked a guy from a bicycle shop and he just said “hm hm”. He didn’t want to check further than that. The cassette was a bit loose which created that noise. In the end, I’ve worn out my chain and cassette much faster than normal. Now I must buy a new one. It costs between $125NZD and $500NZD! Wow! I was recommended one for $165NZD + the tool to tighten it in case this happens again ($17NZD). The shop will be able to do that for me tomorrow. Now I know, I’m learning as much as I am crying… For the passed 8 days I spent almost nothing. I was happy about it and then suddenly… Ouch! $182NZD are gone :-$.

End of the bicycle story! Let me come back to that picture… haha :-). I asked the staff of that bicycle shop if they knew any place where I could camp. After some calls they found this place for me at $18NZD per night. Another good news is that, like in Kerikeri, companies around here call from time to time to get workers. I might be working next week! I am going to think this through because my actual budget is rather limited these days. Let’s what happens!

For the first time since nearly 5 months, I’m not the only one camping :-). Actually I already know 2 people here! Arnaud and Nataly. I met them in Kerikeri 4 months ago and here we are today, camping next to each other haha. There are so many different places in Napier but we managed to end up in the same spot, Wow! 🙂 Nataly could not get a job in Kerikeri so they moved to Tauranga (we were there at the same time as well but did not came across each other). Finally they decided to come to Napier because work is supposed to start soon.