Wellington to Otaki

Trip Start Feb 23, 2005
1
32
53
Trip End May 25, 2005


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Where I stayed
Otaki Oasis
(Otaki hotels)

Flag of New Zealand  ,
Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Last nights torrential rain had stopped this morning so looked like a good day for a bike ride. Braved Wellington's city centre traffic on the bike to get to the train station. It was moderately hair-raising but good training for the main highways of North Island which are by all accounts considerably busier than the South Island's. The train journey to Paraparaumu only took an hour, running in the latter stages along the coast looking out to Kapiti Island and then back on the road for a leisurely potter for the twenty-odd kilometres to Otaki. In fact it wasn't so much of a leisurely potter but more of a terrifying white knuckle ride. Really busy, really fast and lots of trucks. Forget bungy jumping and skydiving, try cycling State Highway 1 of North Island! And there's more of it tomorrow (oh hooray).
Did manage to get to Otaki in one piece. Stayed at the Otaki Oasis backpackers, basic but quite nice. Two dogs, Jess a border collie and Damian, a very elderly labrador who thought of himself as a big scary guard dog but was actually as soft as grease! I was the only guest at the backpackers which was kind of odd but I did get a choice of room and bed for once. I chose badly, my room was freezing (no one seems to have central heating in this country), but in spite of that overslept in the morning!

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