New Plymouth to Pātea Beach

I suppose whilst I hadn’t ridden a bike on my day off I had accumulated 14,000 steps wandering around New Plymouth. It was a splendid town with hot and sunny weather and a stupendous park. However, despite a steep hill to climb away from the coast I felt somewhat restored and looked forward to heading further south.

Being Sunday I thought it’d be quiet. On the contrary the world and his wife were belting down the State Highway 3 to who knows where. One stop may have been the town of Inglewood where the was a flea market starting. I seldom take interest in these affairs unless there’s vinyl to buy and on this journey I’d have nowhere to store or carry it. 

The SH3 may not have had many trucks today but it was busy and all the drivers seemed in a big hurry to get wherever they were going. Some cars, sadly, were going nowhere. It was a thing of beauty but unable to hold any oil. I suggest their Sunday outing was going to be foreshortened.

One unusual delight was Mount Taranaki thankfully dormant but master of all it surveyed and now contained in a National Park. This was as close as I got to it. The road did climb but it was gentle stuff and then it fell into Hāwera. It was here I realised that I had a tailwind. What was one of those? Hāwera was quiet but I needed lunch and I found a cafe run by Sikhs, clearly the sabbath meant little to them (I’m pleased to say.)

I’d originally scheduled to stay overnight here at a campsite but it was around midday and even if I’d wanted to stay there was absolutely nothing to do. So I decided to enjoy the tailwind and I headed east at quite a pace. There were hills but I’d found another gear when ascending and I was making good time. As always the positioning of campsites determines where to and stop and I selected Pātea Beach.

On these smaller sites there is seldom any management on site and as I’m looking around a Chinese/Asian apparition came out of the women’s shower block and gave me the telephone number of Hennie, the owner. I rang him and he said he’d be along later for his NZ$17. 

I did some laundry, showered and then went for a walk to look at the front. There used to be a port that was used for exporting dairy products either to Wellington or direct to the UK. This facility started in the late 19th century and continued until 1959. Today you wouldn’t know of its history.