Tuesday 5 November 2013

Lou Reed, My Brother and Me

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Many have been writing about Lou Reed in the past week. He was obviously an important part in the lives of many people, even if that part had shrunk over the years. Lou Reed came into my life like this ...

On my 18th birthday, five days before Christmas in 1971, my Mum and Dad gave me my first stereo player. Our house had had a radiogram downstairs in the living room, but its record player was never used. That massive walnut veneered box, shiny and almost black, was covered in a small velvet cloth. If you opened the hinge you would reveal the bronze coloured dials, probably Bakelite. If you turned it on a warm glow would emanate from the yellowish light. It would take five minutes for the valves to warm, for a click to be heard, and for a deep sonorous voice from the Light programme to materialise. This radiogram could only play songs by old crooners: Perry Como mostly. Sometimes it played the Shipping Forecast. Usually it was only heard in that strangely dead time between church and Sunday lunch.

So it was a massive thing to have my own stereo record player and it to have all to myself in my bedroom. Though not quite all to myself as I shared a bedroom with my next youngest brother Graham.

The stereo was made by Alba, it had an amplifier and a radio built in with a column of 4 knobs on the side. It had a choice of a short spindle or a BSR auto-change spindle for playing a stack of singles. It was wooden with a perspex lid which didn’t have a hinge. The two speakers were separate and the front of the speakers had ribbed wooden strips over the front cloth. It had a headphone socket somewhere as I bought a pair of headphones later. That stereo remained in the bedroom and was used subsequently used by a variety of my brothers and sisters. It was a fixture for perhaps 15 or 20 years. It may still be tucked away in the attic. I loved that stereo.

But what is a stereo without a record. My birthday present came with two records. Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor. It was conducted by Andrew Davis. My mother and I liked this from films; Brief Encounter seems obvious but also some other old black and white movie, which may have been September Affair with Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten. I would have to see that again to see if it tugs any strings! It is also used in Billy Wilder’s Seven Year Itch.

More surprisingly the other record I was given with the stereo was Wishbone Ash’s Pilgrimage. This was their second album. I did later buy the eponymous first album, and the third, Argus. A search on the internet reveals that they are still going, in two different versions (from original members) and that a 21st studio album was released in 2011. Who knew.

Wishbone were briefly famous for pioneering a twin lead guitar sound, later used by Thin Lizzy (and others). They remain, with Led Zeppelin, the only ‘rock’ albums in my collection.

How did my mother know I liked Wishbone Ash? Why did I like Wishbone Ash? It is possible that I listened to Wishbone Ash on Radio Luxembourg in those weeks before Christmas that year. I may have mentioned it. Probably she asked my brother for advice.

You can imagine how many times this album got played for the time that I only had the choice of two albums.

So, shortly, it’s 1972. It’s my last year at school and I shall leave with the merest scraping of three A Levels. But I have a record player and I have a Saturday job. I can buy records. My Saturday job is working for the Riceman’s Department Store in Canterbury. I work at the depot. It is my job to wash the cars of the owner, and his two sons. They drive big Daimlers and Jaguars. I have to wash and polish them and valet the insides too. They also have their own petrol pump and I have to fill the tanks. One on each size. Sometimes the wives come and I have to clean those cars too. Little tiny Minis!

I was earning about 30/s a day back then. But remember we had just gone metric. I was earning £1.50. It wasn’t very much. An LP would have been £2.

I was at Dover Grammar School for Boys. Only Gary Campbell and I were left from the seven boys - from our village - in our year. The others had left school after O Levels. It was nothing to do with how bright they were. They were perhaps the brightest. Certainly Ernie was, and Patrick was brilliant at football and would go on to play for WBA, Brighton, Gillingham and Southport in the lower divisions. I was lucky to be doing A Levels at all, but I was fortunate to find myself studying Computer Science at A Level at the first school in the country to offer it.

Anyway how do I go about discovering music? I don’t remember much about it. I do remember hanging around in record shops and in particular in one on Dover High Street which had a sound booth. Basically a box built with that hardboard stuff with holes in.

My friend Padfield (we only had surnames in those days and that was how we were addressed by the Masters at school (no common or garden teachers)). We went down to this shop one lunchtime so that he could specifically make me listen to this amazing record. It was Tago Mago by Can. It was amazing and it took me to many places musically. To be fair it also closed the door on a lot of stuff I might otherwise have liked if they had not just been blown out of the water by the sheer brilliance of this album. A brilliance, of course, that I wasn’t really aware of. It was new to me, unknown to most and a doorway to many interesting sounds.

I borrowed some of Chris’s other records round about that time thinking he knew something. I borrowed Atomic Rooster, Curved Air and Grand Funk Railroad, and realised he wan’t the guru I thought he was. I was on my own.

Or not quite as I had the NME as well. It’s hard to remember now how influential this was. Did I take notice of the stuff written in here? What I do remember taking notice of is sleeve notes. I’m convinced that what led me to the Velvet Underground and, eventually Lou Reed and John Cale was reading a sleeve-note somewhere of how they had influenced Can. I was massively into Can, and a few other German bands. Amon Duul for example (1 album) and Faust (3 Albums) - who remembers now the Faust album with an X-ray hand on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve?

Somehow somewhere someone mentioned the Velvet Underground and with my new found wealth I bought the records.

So now I had three summers before I would leave home to go to Polytechnic. Even when I went I would leave the stereo behind. I bought a Philipps Cassette Stereo system to take with me and copied all my LPs to tape. But meanwhile three summers in which to catch up. To play music. To play happy music, but importantly not to play too much different music, because the point is if you cant afford to buy too much music then you have to listen to what you have over and over and over and over again. Those albums from those years I played to death. I know them inside out and back to front with every word and every note. Nobody plays music in this way any more. Over and over.

I cannot now recall which albums I bought and when and in which order. It could have been no more than 1 or 2 albums a month. VU, the Doors, Roxy Music (and later Bryan Ferry), a Santana record, a Frank Zappa (“take me to Montana, gonna be a dental floss tycoon”), and eventually getting around to John Cale and the first Lou Reed album and then the Nico Albums. One leading to another and then another.

But it was the summer really, the summer of ’72 and then the summer of ’73 and finally the summer of ’74. The summer before I left home for Sheffield Polytechnic. Those two years where I worked at the Computer Lab at the University of Kent. Where I earned £998 pounds a year. Just £20 a week. Money spent on records ordered from Virgin Record mail-order. Clothes bought from dodgy adverts on the back of the Daily Mirror.

These were summers where we balanced the stereo speakers on the inside windowsills, opened the windows and blasted the LPs out to the street whilst we lay in the sun in the front garden. Not forgetting that we had to come inside every twenty minutes to turn the record over or change it or more likely just play it again.

Careless long summers with the music playing and neighbours not complaining and not even my Dad saying anything. How can that be? It was probably just one single afternoon that I remember.

But that summer of ’73 we played Transformer over and over gain. Every song is timeless, every melody and bass line and every sax line or tuba line. Those dark lines about New York City those insidious lyrics played out in a simple workings-mans village with no thought of what they meant or who they related to or what they were about. We didn’t care. We didn’t know. We’d hardly been to London, never mind New York. It seemed to us then that we would never know and these places could never be reached or understood. All we had was the tunes and the feeling. Perhaps a feeling that summer would never end.

And we bought ‘Berlin’ and played it to death, and then ‘Sally Can’t Dance’ and then ‘Coney Island Baby’ and by then our musical tastes are moving on and the years are moving on and Lou Reeds albums are getting shorter and shorter. I remember feeling short-changed by these 30 minute albums and it was this that sowed the seeds of my wavering interested and though I bought a few more albums my interest had tailed off by the ‘80s.

In the following years when Lou Reed toured the UK I did try to catch him. In ’73, ’74 and ’75 and then never again. That reunion business in the ‘90s never appealed to me and he never really grabbed me again apart from the New York album.

And that’s it. It’s about playing the LPs repeatedly. And nothing else.

Except at my brothers funeral they decided to play ‘Perfect Day’ possibly his favourite track from Transformer. Or more likely the one he learnt to play on the piano or the one he sang in the shower. It was at the time when the BBC version was released with a sequence of different singers. This was 1997. I’ve never been able to stomach that song since.

He would have been 58 today, but he was killed at 42.

Saturday 13 July 2013

Rhubarb Sorbet

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Recipe

500g Rhubarb, washed and cut into 3cm lngths (or 1 lb, cut into 1 inch lengths))
4 Tbsp of water
250g golden caster sugar (or white) (or 8 ounces)
500ml water (or 1 pint)

First make the sugar syrup by gently warming the water with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Cook the Rhubarb with the 4 tablespoons of water until soft. Cool. Blitz in a blender and then push through a sieve into the sugar syrup, make sure you get all the puree. Stir well.

Pour into your freezer container and when cool place in the freezer for between 4 and 6 hours. Stir once after about 2 hours when slushy, and again after 4 hours. Remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

Serve with Crystallized Ginger and/or Ginger syrup.

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Friday 12 July 2013

Pink Gooseberry Sorbet

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Recipe

450g Pink Gooseberries, topped and tailed and washed.
2 Tbsp of water
140g golden caster sugar (or white)
300ml water

First make the sugar syrup for all the fruit varieties you have. Heat the water and sugar together slowly for 5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved

Put the gooseberries into a pan with 2 Tbsp of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Press the fruit through a sieve into the sugar syrup and discard what's in the sieve, but remembering to scrape the underside of the sieve to get all the purée.

Bring this mixture to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Pour into your freezer container and when cool place in the freezer for between 4 and 6 hours. Stir well after about 2 hours and again after 4 hours.

Remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

The same recipe can be used for green gooseberries and other soft fruits, such as currants, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries. You can add more sugar to taste, or lemon juice to get the level of tartness you like.

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Thursday 11 July 2013

Lavender Sorbet

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Recipe

For the Sugar Syrup: 250ml water and 150g of golden caster sugar.

4 Lavender Flower heads or 2 tsp of dried flowers.

Juice of a lemon, strained.

350ml of cold water.

Slowly heat the sugar and water with the Lavender heads added and bring gently to the boil.

Add half the lemon juice and leave to cool.

Strain the syrup to remove the lavender and add the cold water.

Add the rest of the lemon juice to taste.

Place into a freezer container and stir when slushy after 2 hours, and again after 4 hours.

Remove from the freezer to the fridge half an hour before serving.

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Amazingly this recipe only requires 4 flower heads to make a delicately pink sorbet with a subtle flavour.

Lavender Sorbet and Ice-cream can sometime be seen for sale in places like France or Italy. If its a lavender colour then it has had colour added. If it's the palest pink or white (in the case of ice-cream) then it is likely to be natural.

You could also try this recipe with rose petals (use a strongly perfumed variety) or violets.

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Wednesday 10 July 2013

Mint Sorbet

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Recipe

First of all make 500ml of sugar syrup: that is dissolve 500gr of sugar in 500ml of water under a slow heat. No need to boil.

Add 6, 4 inch sprigs of mint and 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and 250 ml of cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and then allow to cool.

Strain into your freezer container and freeze for a couple of hours until slushy.

Whisk up an egg white to stiff folds. Stir into the mint sorbet and return to the freezer for a couple more hours.

This integration of the egg-white into the sorbet is hard and in mine the white frothy stuff separated and floated on top.

I suggest you divide the mint sorbet amongst some serving glasses, like in the photograph above. In this way the egg-white appears like snow. It's great.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Black, Red and White Currant Sorbet


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Recipes

For each variety of soft fruit you will need:

450g fruit
2 Tbsp of water
140g golden caster sugar (or white)
300ml water

First make the sugar syrup for all the fruit varieties you have. If you have all 3 then put 900ml of water in a pan with 420g of sugar. Heat slowly for 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar and then boil for 10 minutes. Pour the sugar syrup into a measuring jug, it will have reduced to about 750ml.

For each fruit variety put the washed fruit, with stems removed into a pan with 2 Tbsp of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Into a clean pan pour the correct proportion of sugar syrup; for 3 varieties that's about 250ml of sugar syrup. Press the fruit through a sieve into the sugar syrup and discard what's in the sieve, but remembering to scrape the underside of the sieve to get all the purée.

Bring this mixture to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Pour into your freezer container and when cool place in the freezer for between 4 and 6 hours. Stir once after about 2 hours. Remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

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Monday 22 April 2013

New Zealand, North Island - Cycle Tour Map



A Summary of the North Island Tour


View NZ North Island Cycle Tour in a larger map

Overall distance was about 2500km or 1500 miles between April 10th and May 9th 1993. The total for the South and North Islands was about 5000km or 3000 miles.

I finished off in Wellington where Jo held a farewell party for me and her friends. I was leaving for the Cook Islands and Tahiti soon. We drank the case of wines we'd picked up on our walk around the Marlborough Vineyards.

Here are my cheats

Wellington to Auckland by train, 400 miles
Auckland to Whangerei by bus, 100 miles
Swanson to Auckland, Suburban Rail, 12 Miles
Auckland to Waitakaruru by bus, 55 miles
Te Aroha to Rotorua, by bus 60 miles
Gisborne to Napier by bus 130 miles
Napier to Taupo by bus 90 miles
Taumarunui to National Park, by train 25 miles
Marton to Wellington, by train 100 miles


Regrets

Running out of time because of flights booked was a drag
No time for Taranaki Region and New Plymouth
More time needed for central and east coasts
No photographs of Napier!
Haven't been back

Saturday 20 April 2013

Wanganui River Road

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Spiral Train to National Park

At Tokaanu the camp had a thermal spa and a mineral pool too which helped Neil and I recover from the grey and drizzly ride down the coast of Taupo Lake. From Tokaanu to Tauramanni was a long uphill ride to a saddle, where I got soaked in a massive downpour' I then managed to find Rick and Jen, who I'd met in Otago, and they invited me around for dinner. An hours train ride took me up to National park via the famous spiral. Up top it was very cloudy and I saw nothing of the mountains and volcanoes. I did however meet up with Neil again and we had some drinks and another spa.

Down the River Road

The next day we had a very fast twenty mile descent in low cloud and drizzle. We then took the Wanganui River road which is a wonderfully scenic, but often unmade, road following the river valley down to the coast. We had lunch in Pipiriki, and had a quick look around the Colonial House there. After passing through many villages named after European capitals we arrived at Ranana (London in Maori) and camped in a very damp field. The amenities building had been taken over by a travelling Maori family, but we had a very pleasant evening sharing the facilities and chatting over dinner. I went through 3000 miles today.

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The final section of the road down to Wanganui was accompanied by fine weather and we enjoyed the ride, chasing sheep as we went. We finally had to climb steeply from the the river valley and could look back to the winding greenness of the valley below us. That evening we stayed at a haunted YHA (though I didn't hear anything go bump in the night) and went out for a Chinese dinner to celebrate my last evening out.

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Final Train to Wellington

Today I had to ride 25 miles to Marton to catch the train. All the buses from Wanganui were full. After a tedious five hour wait for the train I was almost refused passage as the train was extremely busy. On the train, finally, I chatted to a group of country ladies going to Wellington for the first time. I was met by Jo at Wellington Station and I had to ride the last two or three miles up the steep hills to her flat. This almost finished me off! After a quick shower we went out to a cocktail party and got slaughtered.

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Friday 19 April 2013

Craters of the Moon

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Lake Taupo

Again I caught the bus; this time to Taupo. I was in town early enough to get a haircut before checking into a backpackers. I met Norbert, a German, and we went out drinking. In the morning I rode out to Huka Falls and along a mountain-bike trail for a few miles. At the 'Craters of the Moon' thermal area I met a couiple of German girls; we then visited a prawn farm! We bought some and had them in the evening before going out drinking again. Had a sauna before going to bed.

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Wednesday 17 April 2013

Rainbows and Earthquakes

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Rainbows to Gisborne

I stayed at Tokomuru Bay next, again in a backpackers by myself. The trees are beginning to yellow now for autumn. Today's ride was interspersed with showers and sunshine and `I saw several rainbows. I stopped at Tikitiki but didn't visit the famous church with Maori decorations. From the many hills I fine views of the often weirdly shaped mountains.

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The ride down to Gisborne continued the up and down theme of the East Cape. It was clear and sunny, though slightly cold. I had lunch on the graveyard of a beach at Paranga Bay. In Gisborne itself I settle into the YHA and went to see 'Last of the Mohicans' on the largest screen in NZ. Staying in town the next day I visited museums and wandered around town. The museums were populated with people dressed in pioneer costumes. I was disappointed not to find a decent place to sample some of the local wines.

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Earthquake in Napier

From here I caught the bus to Napier (running out of time!) and spent two days there. More cinema. 'West Side Story', and an examination of the town's Art Deco buildings. I was woken by an earthquake at 7am; it measured 4.9 on the Richter scale. I hardly disturbed my Japanese room-mate. Couldn't get to the vineyards here either!

Monday 15 April 2013

To the East Cape

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Cricket and Football at Hick's Bay

After over 2650 miles I finally get a puncture! Actually two in a row, and a tyre so thin I can see through it. I hitch the last 5 miles into Opotiki getting a lift from the very first car. I stayed at the backpackers here and re-met Sandy from the Cape Reinga trip. Went out for a drink in the evening.

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The next days ride was along a beautiful coast with the White Island volcano on my left almost all day. It was especially nice sitting on the beach with some Maori lads watching the sun go down behind the island which had a permanent volcanic plume. This part of NZ is strongly Maori and I pass several Whares (Meeting Houses) and what look like Totem poles. I also got stung by a wasp today whilst climbing a steep hill. I just gritted my teeth and rode on. This was my first night camping for a while; it was lonely listening to the thunder and seeing the lightning flash, but the rail held off.

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The following days ride was also along the coast, until the last few miles to Hick's Bay. On arrival at the backpackers here, on a makeshift road around a headland to an isolated cove, I played cricket on the beach. Friendly atmosphere. I stayed here two nights. In the morning we got up at 5am to get to the East Cape Lighthouse in time for sunrise. This is NZ's most easterly point, and the new day begins here for the whole world! We shivered in the cold and watched the sun come up. Not very spectacular, but at least I'd brought by stove to make coffee. In the afternoon we kicked a football around before going fishing off the rocks. Julian managed to catch a Snapper and a couple of Rock Cod.

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Friday 12 April 2013

To Hell and Back

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Rotorua, Mud-Pools and Geysers

Lazily I caught a bus today to Rotorua. The bus was free to anyone staying in the YHA so I couldn't resist it! Rotorua's sulphurous smell takes some getting used to. I visited a trout farm and a forest before finding Ray and Doreen. These are relations of Sandras (and Dales) and I cheekily knocked on their door. No problem and I stayed here for an enjoyable three nights. Ray told me some stories from his wrestling days when he travelled around the US and the UK as a professional wrestler, grappling all the famous guys of that era. It was also ANZAC when I was there so he told me some war stories too. And he still plays in the brass band.


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I visited the Maori Cultural Centre and Thermal Reserve. Here I admire the boiling lakes and mud pools and the geysers. I'm slowly getting used to the sulphur smell! Steam seems to come out of the ground everywhere. I then rode through a forest to the Blue and Green lakes and onto a buried village. Thge village was buried in 1886 by a volcanic eruption. very eerie. I visited another crater lake and then rode back. Strange day.

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On my final day in Rotorua I went out with Ray and visited his mother and sister. His brother-in-law collects vintage cars, he has five, including a 1926 Cadillac. We then went to the Polynesian Pools and sat in the radium and Priest pools for an hour or so. Ray has a free entry for his arthritis. In the afternoon I visited the Kaura Park, the Government Gardens and the museum.

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I finally left Rotorua and rode around the lake to Hell's Kitchen (now called Hells Gate). This is, of course, another thermal area. from here it was a ride over the mountains through the northern lake district, past a volcano and across a plain to Whakatane and finally over a hill to a small backpackers at Ohape Bay.

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Thursday 11 April 2013

Opoutere YHA

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Pipi and Green Mussels

I spent three days at this wonderfully secluded YHA at Opoutere. The ride from Hot-Water Beach was fairly short but included two long and steep climbs. The rain held off. Everyone seemed friendly at the YHA and the facilities were excellent. In the afternoon I walked up the hill behind the YHA and examined the view over the bay, looking down on a river making its way to the sea. The endangered NZ Dotterel nests on the sand spit where the river meets the sea. The evening was cosily spent in the living room with a big log fire and a chat with some of the other residents.

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In the morning I packed early and left only to get as far as Whangamata. Here I bumped into Rick (last seen on the Milford Sound road) and I decided to go back to the YHA as he was travelling north. In the afternoon we went wading for Pipi (a kind of mussel) with Rory who is almost a permanent resident of this place. I think he's been 17 times! We got a bucketful of Pipi and cooked them for our evening meal in garlic and wine. Very nice. After going fishing in the rowing boat in the evening, catching nothing, we spent the night chatting and playing Scrabble.

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I decided to spend another day here, but Rick after another walk up to the summit, left that day. Rory and I played some badminton. In the afternoon we took the canoes out (with Rory and Jo) and managed to catch three fish! We also dived for a bucketful of green mussels. For dinner I make bread and Chelsea buns and Mussels Provencal. Sumptious. Another perfect day.

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The next morning I managed to drag myself away, but consoled myself by buying a couple of surf T-shirts in the sales at Whanagamata. Today's ride was long and cold with a strong southerly breeze. After lunch at Waiki I rode through the Karangahake Gorge, partly along an old railway line, then through Paroroa. It was flat all the way then to Te Aroha where I stayed at a YHA again. I was alone. As usual I visited the spa pool in the evening.

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Wednesday 10 April 2013

Hot Water Beach

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Over the Coramandel Range

The following day I rode back to Coramandel Township and then took the mountain road over the Coramandel Ranges to the east coast. It was a long slow climb, particularly as the road was unsurfaced. The descent was tricky as the mud was slightly wet as I rode down through the forest. The views, both east and west, were spectacular from the summit. I had lunch at Matarangi on the beach all by myself and then continued along the coastal road to Kuaotunu. I was the only one camping here too.

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The next days ride took me to Hot Water beach via Whitianga. A short ferry ride here saved me 25 miles (to go around the inlet) and I bumped into Stefan (riding north) who I'd ridden with in Otago! After walking up to the Cook Memorial on Shakespeare Cliff I rode into Hahei Beach, where the sand is supposed to be pink and sat down and wrote some letters.

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On the road to Hot Water Beach I passed a winery and popped in for a tasting. It was mostly fruit wine made by a Yorkshireman. I set up camp and went for a walk along the famous beach, and met a Dutch guy, Mathias, who was busy digging a spa-pool in the sand. When I returned from my walk he was still hard at it, but I think the tide was to far out for him to get the proper hot-water effect.

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In the evening Matthias drove us into Whitianga for dinner and on our return we walked across the beach again looking at the stars.

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