East Cape

 My mate John and I spent 5 days biking around the East Cape area of NZ. The area is the least populated part of the North Island and boasts fantastic scenery and, in my opinion anyway, scenery wise is the most underrated area in NZ.

Unfortunately, the East Cape bore the brunt of Cyclone Gabrielle which caused an estimated NZ$13 billion of damage which is going to take many years to put right. The areas roading system was always a bit sketchy but is a great deal more so now with huge stretches of highway damaged by water and slips with many bridges also washed away.

An amazing a mount of work has been done to make the roads passable so the area is now accessible again so hats off to all those involved.

The result of all this was 1600km of at times tough but exhilarating riding and a memorable trip.

We stayed at campsites in Taupo, Opotiki, Tologa Bay and Napier.

Camping in Taupo

Overlooking Taupo on the way to Opotiki

Near Opotiki

On the way to Tologa Bay

Dinner in Tologa Bay. We were starving and the pub in Opotiki wasn't serving food and the only other place open was a dairy and the only hot food they had were steak and mushroom pies, so we had two each for dinner!

Tologa Bay at dusk

Tologa bay the next day, all packed up and ready to leave

Yours truly