Sunday, March 15, 2015

waiting at Morere for Cyclone Pam to hit

Well today turned out to only have one light shower this morning then sunshine all day. I could have traveled south. Such is life. The next clear day is Wednesday by the forecast. Tomorrow is meant to be clear in the morning but then showers starting in the early afternoon and continuing right through until Tuesday night with heavy showers and high winds Sunday and Monday tapering off Tuesday. Should I just sit here twiddling my thumbs? It is good for my health to take a break but not good for my wallet paying for the cabin I am in instead of camping.

I have enjoyed myself here. I read a couple books already and found a stack of New Zealand history magazines which I read the entire stack of. I have spent hours soaking in the hot springs, so much so that I noticed I smelled like a rotten egg in bed last night despite three hot showers. The worst problem at Morere is there is no healthy foods. There is a cafe but it is mostly fast food, deep fried and lacking in any veggies. I do like to eat my healthy foods on the road. I prefer to make my own food. If a ride came up in the next couple days I would move down the coast to a place with better supplies to wait out the rain.

Cyclone Pam flyby at Morere NZ

Today it is Monday March 16th four days since I rode and it has been pouring rain for about 15 hours now due to Cyclone Pam. They also predicted high winds for the area where I am between Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in little Morere NZ. The wind has only been a bit gusty not the 75-100mph winds they thought were hitting here. There is still time to get some stronger winds before the cylone passes us but I do not see 75mph being possible. Give it 4 more hours and it should start to ease up. There are also breakers on the beach that are 25-30’ high according to the internet but I have not seen any pics or other verification for those big breakers. They warned surfers to stay out of the water but come on we are talking surfers here not scientists. There will be surfers out there for sure. I hope they all survive because a 25’ wave is huge when it breaks on you.

I have just been reading kindle books to pass my time. The rain is predicted to continue until Wednesday morning. I hope I can hit the road Wednesday when it lets up. That will be an entire week holed up in a little cabin. I will go stir crazy soon. Maybe I should not have read The Shining.

The almost dry creek behind my cabin is a raging river now. It has risen about 6 feet this morning and another 2 feet in the last hour. I have pics below to compare. I think it will keep rising for a while yet and may spill it banks before this rain is over.

The encouraging news is the 10 day forecast has rain in it over half the time…lucky me. My bike will be nice and clean and salt free I hope with the nice shower it is getting.

The storm is past now and we never got high winds. We are getting lots of rain though. For the next three days we can expect showers that the storm threw out as it spun just offshore. Lucky me! More rain! 21 out of 26 days here it has rained on me and that pattern will hold for the next week more than likely. I hope to leave here tomorrow or Wednesday if the rain lets up long enough. Some pics of a katydid and the dry creek behind the campground that has turned into a raging river by the heavy rain and a pic of the storm as it passed by New Zealand.