Cycle: 56km

Mount Taranaki had disappeared into the cloud again but we thought we needed a a little exercise so decided to do the cycle up the North Egmont anyway! It was our whole reason for staying two nights in New Plymouth and would be our last big climb so we had to do it.

The highway out of New Plymouth was busy and fast so we whipped along to get off of the road asap. We turned off at Egmont Village and began the 16km climb (according to the road signs) up to North Egmont (we were cheered by this as the lady at the i-site yesterday had told us it was a 23km climb!). The climb started very gradually but as with the shape of a volcano steepened as we neared the end of the road. The last few km were very steep and through thick sub-tropical rain forest. The road didn't go all the way up but finished at an altitude of 950m, phew! The summit is actually at 2300m-ish so we were well off this. You can get to the top in summer but there was not enough time for us to get up, nor were we properly equipped to try with the top 1000m or so being covered in thick snow. Unfortunately there was so much cloud that we couldn't even see the top so our best views were yesterday when we cycled round it. There was an information centre and The Mountain House cafe so we occupied ourselves in there for while. The cafe manager stoked the fire for us (her only guests) and we sat with our backs to to dry our sweat! The manager also recommended that we book the blue cabin at the Mokau campsite, where we were headed tomorrow night, as this was one of her favourite spots.

The ride back down was quite eventful. We had to cycle through some road works and got covered in mud, much to the amusement of the workmen! Then we stopped to say hello to some Shetland ponies and fed them an apple. We almost got to rescue a young boy who asked us for help because he couldn't get in his house but his parents showed up in the nick of time! Back on the main road we whizzed along (because it was downhill, we had no baggage and were inspired by watching coverage of the 2008 Paris-Roubaix cycle race on the TV last night - it made me realise how slowly we cycle in comparison!).

Back at the ranch Scott heated up the bolognaise he made last night and we watched Mission Impossible 3 on the TV. It was brilliant and yet again gave us a taste of a homely life which we really enjoyed.