01/03/14 : THE SPIDER'S LAIR

Day 24 : Matamata - Kaihere ( about 65km)

The following day, Roger offers us a lift at The Warehouse Store so we can find a brand new tyre. Once we found it, he brings us back to his home. We say our last farewell to this stunning family and we are back on the road again.

Today, we are doing a long ride. Our goal is to do the most kilometers possible so we can reach Auckland in the next five days. During the ride, there are some serious steeps but now we are kind of use to it. By the way, the more we go deep in the North, the dryer and paler the grass is.

At the end of the day, we stop next to a farm where some horses are wandering off the fense. At the far side of the field, we can see a 45 years old woman who is ploughing her field. Then we are going for a meeting to ask if we can pitch our tents somewhere in here fields for the night.

At the beginning, she is a bit septic but she ends up greeting us anyhow. This woman, called Brya, owns beautiful horses along with a georgous house located between two wide fields. She tell us she takes care of her farm with her daughter Ella, only during week end.

Brya's white Horse

Finally, she offers us to sleep next to her house or in a little room near the barn. As the night is going to be cold, we decide to settle in this small room where there is a queen’s size bed lodged in the top right corner. Actually, there is not plenty of space but at least, it’s warmer than sleeping in the yard.

We eat outside though. We drink our usual cup of tea after diner then we wind up in the room. After a little while, we notice the room is infested by spiders, tarantula alike. This is not very pleasant to see. Without hesitating, we get out of here to finally sleep outside. We are disappointed but we’d rather sleep outside, in the cold, than ends up with a bunch of scaries spiders into ours sleeping bags.