May 15
Spent a pretty nice evening in Port McNeil last night. Considered poking around to find some free camping but the local campground lured me in with the promises of cheap tent camping and free hot showers. Luckily, the campground was a short walk from the local IGA (and the liquorstore).
Woke up to +5 degrees and had a hard time dealing with it after the hot days. After a breakfast of leftover pie and instant coffee, I hit the road. Let me tell you, cycling the North Island Highway is an experience.
The shoulder is only about a foot wide (with baggage, my bike is about a meter wide), and sometimes it disappears entirely. Meanwhile, you have logging trucks flying by you at upwards of 120 km/hr. There were a few times I could probably have reached out and touched the trucks as they went by.
After a long day, with lots of breaks, I finally called it quits at about 6 pm and 95 km. There is a major drought of rest stops and campgrounds on the North Island, so I set up camp along the headwaters of the Eve River, way up in the hills. Numerous locals by the way, advised me against camping up there, because "Theres animals out there in the wilderness".
No fear of the animals?? Bears scare the crap out of me!! :'(
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