Mokau to New Plymouth

(Again, a reminder. Opening this as an email won’t show the videos I’ve included)

New Plymouth was to be a major stop on my ride, a town of 90,000, and plenty of shops and accommodation. It’s here I would spend a day off the bike resting. Coincidentally it was the town my aunt and uncle, May and George, first settled in when they emigrated to NZ in the 1950s. George ran a clothing factory.

Leaving Mokau was a distinct pleasure, I won’t return, but my route, the State Highway 3, was a major road with fast moving traffic including trucks. If I was concerned then at a cafe in Mokau, where I had some breakfast and stocked up for lunch, I met a chap who alerted me to the perils that awaited. He was the type of man who I imagine as a small child pulled the legs off spiders for sadistic pleasure. Relaying my future misery before climbing into his 4×4 was probably the highlight of his day. His main information was that roadworks were ahead with gravel underfoot. I did advise that when it came to gravel I had seen the movie, bought the book and invested in the T shirt.

When eventually it turned to Green the long queue of traffic behind me gave me space. A few hundred metres down this road and onto the gravel the ride was tricky:

Eventually a chap in a works truck thought it best that I (and the bike) got on board and he’d ferry me to the end of the roadworks. I did ask, after I got comfortable as to whether he might continue to New Plymouth? Bless him, I did have to explain, as he offered excuses, that I was only joking (or half at least.)

The roadworks continued with several traffic lights and it broke up the traffic. Consequently I had a traffic free experience. Being a major road then all significant gradients had been ironed out and I think I only had one 7% section but usually 3 and 4%.

About half way there I got a WhatsApp from Anna. Had I noticed the cafe coming up? So I looked up and lo and behold my observant spouse was steering me toward a flat white and a tarte au citron. New Plymouth started to present itself many miles out from the centre. It was the largest town around.

I found the hotel and easily checked in. To my delight it had a ‘Guest Laundry’. So for £4 I washed and dried my kit.

I then went walkabout. I wanted to find the street my aunt and uncle lived on. I did but it had all been redeveloped and new waterfront houses were in situ.