North from Waitangi, I had an in-
credible accidental detour around
Matauri Bay and Whangaroa which
brought me through some of the most
fun riding I had ever done – good
quality roads, lots of turns, no traffic,
and endless places to stop for pho-
tos if you can pry yourself out of the
saddle. These first few days of riding
taught me a couple things that are my
first two FYI’s to you about riding in
New Zealand.
1 – Dragging pegs/boxes is a when,
not an if.
2 – It’s almost impossible to keep
your eyes on the road; the landscapes
are ever changing and always spectac-
ular.
From the end of that loop, there’s
only one route left to get up to the
cape, which is back on the main high-
way. On my way up the peninsula, I
made a last minute decision to search
out accommodation after warnings
that cyclone Hola would be hitting the
area and camping in gale force winds
and heavy rains isn’t really my cup of
tea. Despite the weather forecasters
missing the mark and the wind and
rain never really hitting, my stay at
the Northwind Lodge proved to be a
wonderful detour.
Currently managed and maintained
by a friendly and insightful couple,
Doolan and Karyn, they not only pro-
vided me with the direction and con-
fidence to ride 90 mile beach but were
warm and open people, that were so
easy to talk to we solved all the worlds
problems while sharing a meal. Dool-
an gave a beautifully insightful answer
to the question I’ll be asking people
along my journey: “What makes you
Happy/What is Happiness to you?”
“What makes me happy is the ap-
preciation of where I live (NZ). The
positive people around me. The
knowing of all my whanau (family)
are doing ‘alright’. Happiness is (to
Doolan) about being content. Con-
tent with the fact of knowing that ev-
ery action has a reaction. And if you
stay positive about your actions, then
the reactions are generally positive.
But don’t kid yourself – there will be
storms every now and then. But its
TRAVERSE 20
how you deal with the shit that comes
your way. Positivity breeds positivity.
Storms make you appreciate the good
days/weeks/months/years. Money is
not everything.”
From this base at Northwind Lodge,
I had a most wonderful 5 star, 12/10
day. It started with another winding
ride up National Highway 1 to the tip of
the cape where I witnessed the white-
wash battle of the oceans as the Pacif-
ic meets the Atlantic at the base of the
Cape Reinga lighthouse. From there, I
continued on, managing to avoid seri-
ous injury sandboarding the massive
dunes, then had my first off-road rid-
ing experience in the country at the
base of those dunes: a nearly 4km riv-
erbed ride out to 90 mile beach.
Thanks to the much needed advice,
encouragement and tide tables from
Doolan, I was prepared to have my first
time riding through water solo. While
certain portions of the river had me
terrified of flooding Robin - especially
the first experience hitting an unseen
obstacle causing an instant butt clench
at the short sideways slip or the time a