By Eric O’Higgins

It isn’t polite to talk about the weather, even though it was perfect and sunny in New Zealand while you all were in the deep freeze. We came up the East Coast highway, almost empty now of people since the road was built in the 1950s. We were sharing the pavement with log trucks since they were logging further north.

Every day seemed to have something different, something unexpected.

First on our agenda had been a trip by boat from Auckland to Tiritiri Matangi, the island ecological preserve home to Greg the Kakapo and one of the world’s best sandwich thieves. Greg died shortly thereafter but the breed has risen from near extinction to about 100 of the world’s largest parrots.

Next stop, Gisborne on the Naked Bus. And, no, none of us did but one of us travelled for just $1. We spent a day riding to the Eastwoodhill National Arboretum where Douglas Cook planted 5,000 different trees and shrubs over a period of 55 years while apparently wearing only one rubber boot. Douglas Fir, red cedar, yellow cedar, and lodgepole pine were all doing fine so far from home.

Out of flat land Gisborne and into the hills on SH35 to Tolaga Bay and to Tokamaru Bay, both commercial hubs with giant piers out into the open ocean. Both now ghost towns.

Brian’s Place in Tokamaru Bay is vintage 1960s hippie, with fantastic views.

More hills and worse on the way to Hicks Bay, so apply named that it’s 100km from anywhere at all. Drove and rode to the East Cape lighthouse while storm clouds massed and the wind howled across the summit.

We just got back to our digs in Hicks Bay when a cloudburst chased us indoors, our narrowest escape of the trip.

We rode a day to Marahaeko Bay Retreat right at the water’s edge and then on to Ohiwa Beach, both long days. Another long ride and a hike down Tarawera River to the falls where they emerge from the centre of a cliff.

Next day we rode back to civilization at Rotorua for three days of sightseeing, one of those was a ride to the Buried Village on the other side of Tarawera Mountain when it split open and coated everything with ash.

The poplar fence posts from 1886 are now massive trees in a die straight line that betrays their heritage.

Well rested in in good condition from our day on, day off riding, we rode every day: Okauia Springs, Waihi, Opoutere, Whitianga, Thames, Orere Point and so back to Auckland.

Okauia Springs and Waihi required special guidance on complicated routes. Opoutere is pronounced “a pottery” to the confusion of the shoppers who had visited a real pottery a few days earlier. Whitianga followed a day at Hot Water Beach — which this year was just too crowded a zoo to be much fun. Thames was the longest and hilly-est of the trip, followed by two easy days on the near-flat.