Two days in Matamata

My friend at work, Paul, kindly offered use of his house here in Matamata. We had already booked and paid for accommodation here on Sunday - Looking at the weather forecast for Sunday and Monday, the predictions are rain all day. Thanks Paul, we'll have a rest day and stay in your house on Monday night.

Sunday night we stayed at Maple Lodge, comfortable and fine, but uninspiring. This morning we move to Kiwi St, just a couple of streets away - and have a whole house to ourselves :-) It's an old house but clean and well equipped, even sporting a computer work station - plug in your laptop and you have keyboard and two large screens :-) I squeeze the bikes down the right side of the house and they have a garage to themselves and a dartboard. We will be very comfortable here :-)

Sau Keng declines the work station as it looks too complex, so it's mine :-) Just plug in the USB-C cable and the mouse and we are good to go... Nope, mouse and keyboard work but not the screens. I try a few things, give up and write a message to Paul for help. I'm just about to press send when I notice the screens now display my text! Are they afraid of even the threat of Paul? Are they just messing with me? I re-write my message and Paul replies saying it is the latter, and they do the same to him.

I spend the morning choring. Stop 1 is the bike shop, which we have had good reports of. I want a new light and advice re the speed sensor and hopefully a bracket for my taillight. Disappointing, I get the light, but despite having e-bikes for sale the young man refuses to even comment on the sensor - "we don't work on e-bikes", and he seems offended at my suggestion he might be able to custom make a bracket "I've got a week's work waiting". With some pushing he does name a product I can use to treat my shoes - which are very smelly after Sunday's wet ride. After the bike shop I find the supermarket and buy food, then The Warehouse looking for a flag and finally a '2 Dollar' shop where I buy a child's hi-vis vest for $5. There is a coffee cart just around the corner from our house so I buy Sau Keng a flat white & return home. The morning is gone.

Work for the afternoon and into the evening but I was not very effective. I'll call it half a day. Sau Keng seems to have had a productive day working and breaks to cook dinner for us. After dinner, time to write this blog. The forecast was accurate - it rained most of today. The forecast for tomorrow is the same, then Wednesday should be fine. We will stay another day. Paul's house is not available tomorrow night so we book at the Tower Motel. We can stay here for the day though, people will not arrive until 8pm.

Tuesday. More chores. Lube the bikes - Looks like I will have to always do this after rain as mine is showing a little rust on the chain already (very little and lube removes it). Make a new flag - I reckon it looks pretty good and it will not easily come off. Return to the bike shop to query my new light. It has a strap to hold the fitting to the bike, the light slides into the fitting and a lock mechanism secures it. That is the theory. In practice it takes all my strength, using both arms, to push the light into the fitting or remove it. I get the older man at the bike shop: "Nothing wrong with this, they are all like that" That is not right. I have several lights with similar attachments and none are remotely like this. Hard to say so without flatly accusing him of lying - I try. He goes off, works on it for a while and returns demonstrating how it comes out now with a lesser pull - but he did not release the lock mechanism - it should not have come out at all. I try, it's still way too stiff and the lock mechanism does not work for me either. I point this out and he gets angry... Eventually he offers to take it back and I accept the offer.

Later Sau Keng and I go out to buy something for dinner. I show

her the Centennial Drive, very nice with some magnificent trees, then we take the requisite photos at the information center, buy our dinner and return home. The morning is gone. Work for the afternoon. Another half day.

Ride to Tower motel. It's sharper and newer than Maple Lodge, we like it here. Our neighbor is another TA (Tour Aotearoa) rider. He thinks our 7am planned start is a bit extreme. Alas, there are no cooking facilities other than a microwave. It's only 5 so back to Kiwi St, cook and eat dinner and return to Tower motel.