KIWI AS
That evening we met up with Mike and Angela from
Britton Adventures, in ‘Gizzy’ for the four-day tour
of the East Cape. The Cape region is as traditional
NZ as it gets where much of the local population
is Maori. The group was made up of several friends
from NZ whom I’d met from tours in Mongolia and
Bolivia, which I had been on with Britton Adventures,
so the atmosphere was full of good humour and
anticipation. It was fab to see these guys again.
The area had received no rain for
three months and the cows were
going crazy with the lack of water…
until it was time to ride
The day before we started riding the East Cape
Adventure was hot as – 80 degrees F (approx. 27
deg-C), and humid. The area had received no rain
for three months and the cows were going crazy
with the lack of water… until it was time to ride.
160km of slippy Gisborne mud and steep hills
equals total exhaustion. I fell off several times...
but that’s all part of the fun. Despite that, it was an
awesome day travelling through all the farms that
are normally off-limits, over sugarloaf hills leading
straight down to the sea, then along the beach at
full blast (dreaded sand) ending at Cooks Cove.
Lunch was at Tolaga Bay, then some more farms and
gravel roads finishing up at the small settlement
of Te Puia Springs where we had a nice night at
the Maori-run hotel, complete with its very own
pungent hot spring pool to sooth our aching limbs.