Unlucky for some!
Paeroa to Matamata
65.3km
Well the bloody forecasts were all wrong! They promised us rain, all day and all the way, but we got prolonged sunny intervals and broken cloud. You just can't trust the meteorologists... Lucky we put on 'insurance' sunscreen. But we did get the Northerly biased wind. Luxury!
From our motel we passed back through town, ignoring the giant L&P bottle as we'd captured that on the way in. But when we got to the bridge over the Ohinimuri we found a sign 'Giant bottle, 60m' pointing down some steps and under the bridge. It had to be done. We found the genuine, original giant L&P bottle in a sylvan setting, just begging to be photographed. After which we had to hoik the bikes back up the bloody steps to reach the cycle bridge on the other side of the road!
After a somewhat convoluted departure from Paeroa, making sure we followed the rail trail to Matamata rather that the branch line to Waihi, we were making rapid progress on the smooth, straight gravel, wide enough to ride companionably side-by-side. Which is where we come to the conundrum of averages. For 23km between Paeroa and Te Aroha our speedo consistently showed in excess of 15kph, frequently 18-19, yet it took more than 2 hours to get there. Yes, we stopped every 5km for a break, and occasionally for photos, but where did the time go?
We got to Te Aroha at morning tea-time, so after Marg's reminiscences with a local, we paused a while for coffee and pies. And upon leaving we followed the Kennetts' direction to the letter, to the true left end of the bridge over the Waihou river. At which point I found a sign indicating the Hauraki Rail Trail toward Matamata. Which we followed. Which took us back up into town, down roads not mentioned in our guide, before landing us on the shoulder of a fairly busy road out of town, and petered out. At which point I headed the words of the navigator in chief, who pointed out that our instructions did not mention following the rail trail at this point. So we retraced our wheel-tracks, back to the bridge, and across it... Strangely enough, the directions and road names now made sense. Quite why the HRT and the Kennetts' diverge at this point, following different but parallel roads up the Waihou valley, I have no idea, but the Kennetts' option was much less busy. And it took us past the cemetery (the dead centre of town! Boom boom!) where we had cause to wonder what a person could have done to be so ostracised, even in death. And from there on it was simply a matter of following the excellent rail trail. The wind assistance remained, we were bowling along at a good pace, and the weather was holding. Happy cycling.
We made it to the Firth Tower & museum at 2:30, which meant we'd covered 33km in about 2 1/2 hours, and we had 30 minutes to explore a bit of its history. The rationale behind building a faux Scottish castle tower in 1882 Waikato is still a little vague... And so on to Matamata, where our b&b is conveniently located pretty much en route into town. As ever, there's a story: first off a misread of Marg's notes had us looking for 20A, which does not exist, and we ended up looking confused at the end of a close. A very helpful/concerned/paranoid householder came out to see if we needed assistance. Having established that we were in fact staying at 28A, we then spent 10 minutes trying to open the keysafe, with the correct combination, but at the wrong door. The sign indicating Di's B&B might have given us a clue... And so ends day 13!
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