Friday, April 07, 2006

Raining on our Parade

Captain's Blog, Sun April 2. The Black Hole

So, we wake up a bit shady, the sun is shining, we have an invite to our new lady friends' party, so what do we do? Scrap riding, scrap the chicks, let's drive! Due to our tired legs and sore heads, we decided to go to Tauraunga, listed in our book as a place with some nice trails. Once in Tauraunga, we made the five minute trip to Mt. Manguanui, which is like a playground of the rich and infamous. Big houses on a beachfront with a cool downtown and cruiseliners in the bay. Next morning we awoke to rain...oh the rain. Persistent, driving rain. We packed up and headed in the general direction of Hamilton, finally docking there. Get a motel, and head downtown. We happened upon the Belgian Beer Cafe. Big mistake. Or not. We drank the finest of Belgium, Duvel, Chimay Blanche, Hoegaarden. 8.5 to 12%, evil gear. After stumbling home via a Thai takeaway, I decided to move the car, almost reversing it into Room 5's front window. Then it was time to spill the Beef Mussaman all over the table, and smash a Wicked Blonde on the kitchen floor. I was in the zone. The stupid pissed bloke zone. Christian lost his ring for the umpteenth time on the trip. I found a cat out the front and that kept me entertained for a few minutes. We hightailed it outa there next morning, tails between our legs, and headed for Tokoroa.

Ok, so Monday comes and we head to Tokoroa, armed with our trusty book. The trails don't appear to be where they should. Into town to the local bike shop, and we are informed that the trail system at Big Rock has been closed down. There are other trails though, so we scope them out. Across this feild lies a pine forest (surprise), and soon we are amongst it. Pretty darn nice trails they are too, probably better than anything back home, but after Rotorua they just seem so inoccuous. We spend about 1.5 hours in there, up and down and around, but somehow we just aren't satisfied. Off we go, back to the smelly MTB paradise.

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