Good thing too, because there are some shorter, steeper hills along the way to the biggie (Whangapoua Hill), just to warm us up.
Over 40km and 3 hrs later, we got to the summit of Whangapoua Hill. We'd all worked up a serious sweat (for the first time Carole finished her water bottle), and our legs felt like rubber. But the views along the way and at the top are spectacular.
The ride down was both thrilling and slightly scary: On the way down, I had to stop and rest my hands since they hurt from squeezing the brakes; Fran could smelt her brake pads smoking; and Eric, even with the switchbacks, hit a max speed of 70 kph.
We had a lunch break soon after in Coromandel town and then set off, knowing the worst was over. However, there was still a "moderate" hill to climb which felt just as bad as Whangapoua Hill. As Eric pointed out, it was hotter and we were "moderately" tired. At that summit, we ran into Irish John, a some-time CCCTS member.
The last 40km were sweet: the twisty, narrow road had an ever-so-gentle downhill and hugged the coast so that we had the hill on our left and the sea to our right. Glorious! To celebrate, we had another ice cream stop about 15km from Thames.
Our destination that night was the Thames Sunkist, which was a large house converted to a hostel, so it felt more like a B&B. It had a peaceful, well-maintained backyard with chaise lounges and hammocks as well as a shady deck. It came complete with a gentle Labrador whom we could take for a walk, but not feed (he was on a special diet). The women's dorms had really high ceilings and 2 sets of really high bunk beds to match. We actually had to ask for a step stool to access the upper bunks since the first rung of the ladder came almost to our hips!
Carole and Martel made curry chicken over rice, and stir-fried vegetables. Dessert was a triple-chocolate pie and fruit. But this day, we'd earned every crumb.
With nicely rounded stomachs, we happily headed to bed.
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