My electric bike didn’t charge the first night, we assumed it wasn’t plugged in correctly.

This morning the battery was dead. It’s either the bike or the charger. Because it’s a heavy bike without assist and we had bigger hills today, we called the touring company.

Remember my wish to sit idly and read a book? No book, but I sat on a bench waiting for our tour company to bring a new bike.

As another bonus, Kobus, our knight in shining armor, offered us a ride past the scary bike park to make up cycling time we missed. (Kaiteriteri Scary Mountain Bike Park - see orange squiggly map below).

We totaled 30 miles today not including two shuttles (Kobus and Mike) and passed some of the most beautiful scenery.

I might have avoided the scary mountain bike park, but not the deep, dark and scary tunnel. It was frickin cold inside and pitch black; state required us to have a torch (their word for flashlight). I’ve included a few photos from their info board.

Chickens. We passed several chicken farms, which I later discovered were free range egg farms. I stopped to take a photo, where the company had planted different fruit trees along the fence when the chickens started to run towards me. Dozens of chickens ran across the field to cluck ‘hello.’ I was completely overwhelmed. That’s when I noticed they had piped in 80’s music. Here were happy chicken, not afraid of humans, or the cows and sheep in the corner of the pasture.

Apparently factory farming is frowned upon in New Zealand; cows, sheep, and deer are pasture raised with a clump of trees for shade.

After my chicken experience, I saw a picnic table, opted to take a break, wipe my tears and think about our food choices back home.

At the end of today’s ride we met Paul and his frisbee dog Piper. They love their dogs here, but there’s more restrictions with leash laws, hiking places, and outdoor restaurants.

There you have it, most animals have more respect here. So do the forests and native birds. We have witnessed massive numbers of rat and possum traps and then there were the goat hunters yesterday…anything not native is on the hit list, I wonder if that includes immigrants?

I want to recommend Kimi Ora Eco Resort in Kaiteriteri. The accommodations were excellent, staff friendly and the vegetarian food to die for.

P.S. I haven’t eaten any chicken this trip, only fish and/or veggies.