Cycle: 89km

I was expecting today's ride to begin on the coast but unfortunately SH3 head out of town just inland so there wasn't much to see. The state highway rolled along and after a quick break in Waitara the traffic thinned dramatically much to our relief.

We stopped in Urenui for some snacks outside the local supermarket and a quick look at the views from the town park. The rest of the town surrounded a little lagoon where the river met the sea. The sun was shining and this looked really beautiful with the reflections in the water.

The land today was mostly agricultural but towards the end of the day we veered closer and closer to the coast. We occasionally had good views of the sea with a green band of fields full of curious cows. Near the end of the day we ate some nuts and raisins overlooking a river estuary with amazingly clear blue-turquoise water. This was a really beautiful spot on an otherwise average day's cycling.

We finally arrived in Mokau and were a bit confused when we reached the end of town and hadn't reached our campsite! Checking the map it turned out we still had a few km to go. Bad news now, but always good news in the morning when you have a little less distance to cover.

Seaview Motorcamp, recommended by our host in the Taranaki Cafe turned out to be a big disappointment. We were duly placed in the "Pink Palace" which on first impressions could have done with a major overhaul. The double bed looked okay but there were stains and hairs on the single bunk beds... I was glad we were using our sleeping bags! Worse still were the showers. These looked like they had been cleaned in quite literally a million years. I am, perhaps, a little prone to exaggeration, but not this time. My shower had a half-smoked cigarette on the soap dish which a spider had managed to colonise. Nice.

Slightly in denial about things we ate our dinner, watched Chris Tarrant on the TV and went to bed. Luckily we were tired enough to pass out fairly quickly!