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<\/a><\/p>\nThe next day, with a backdrop of storm clouds brewing in the distance, C\u00e9dric and I left the Tongariro National Park to the sunnier town of Raetihi a short two-hour ride down the road. There, we had lunch at a local caf\u00e9 and got advice for the next leg of our trip to Pipiriki. Since we had biked uphill a lot to get to the national park, the road down from Raetihi to Pipiriki was a very welcomed decent. As opposed to the state highways, we didn\u2019t need to hug the road\u2019s shoulder and could breeze down the winding road to Pipiriki.\u00a0 The village of Pipiriki was quiet and sparsely inhabited but as we later learned, it was the home to a large luxury hotel welcoming the British high society on vacation, as well as a trading industry a century ago.<\/p>\n Thursday, we woke up early and started our day off biking down the Whanganui River Road. Despite going downstream, the way was anything but flat (thanks to all advices of car drivers \u201cit\u2019s a gentle road down the river\u201d). The road took us through some other small Maori settlements along the river and past some parts of the road with significant mudslides, most likely due to the very heavy storms at the beginning of January. The road is basically a succession of 50m hills up and down with a total elevation of 1000m at the end of the day. The very last hill in particular was quite punishing since our legs hadn\u2019t fully recovered from the Tongariro crossing \u2013 but that meant a coffee break a few kilometers later! Near the day\u2019s end, we were happy to cycle through the town of Whanganui and receive a warm welcome from Ann and John (and a lovely dinner with lots of garden vegetables, thanks again)!<\/p>\n A night of rain brought good-enough weather to continue cycling the next day. As we made our way out of Whanganui, we decided to attempt taking the tandem and trailer on the Durie Hill elevator as we made our way out of town\u2026 and were disappointed to find out that our rig wouldn\u2019t fit (although we kinda assumed that would be the case anyway). So onwards we went biking on busy state highway 1, only taking a slight detour in the middle to alleviate ourselves from the heavy truck and RVs traffic. For our afternoon pick-me-up, we got treats in the town of Bulls, where everything appears to be a Bull based pun (the town museum: Memor-a-BULL, town hall: Soci-a-BULL, information center: inform-a-BULL). We continued on for a bit more before turning off to Tangimoana for the night, a small remote lay-down beach-vacation town on the coast.<\/p>\n Saturday was another day biking alongside busy state highways 1 and 3, but the food stops in Foxton and Levin allowed us to regain our nerves and continue onwards. That night, we made it to Otaki Beach, where we did some wild camping on the beachfront and attempted to cook steaks on our stove (we tried to find a new way of grilling meat \u2013 burnt on the outside, and mostly raw on the inside\u2026 ahhh the romance of camping \u2013 we\u2019ll probably try bacon slices instead of 500g of beef next time!).<\/p>\n Today, we biked a quick 20 km to Waikanae (including a coffee stop in Otaki) where we were able to take a commuter train for the last leg of our way to Wellington. After talking to multiple locals about acceptable routes into Wellington, we surmised that the ride was nearly impossible, would be for sure unpleasant and would mean more risk than we would feel comfortable taking unless we wanted to be biking on the side of a 4-lane highway. In a quick hour ride, we arrived in the center of Wellington and had lunch at the Harbourside Market before cycling around the city.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n