Today we cycled from Taree to North Haven near Laurieton.  There was not much option but to bike along the Pacific Highway or take a lot of dirt road.  Surprisingly, we enjoyed biking on the highway.  We left the motel just after 9am and quickly joined the highway.  There was a huge 2m verge with rumble strip between us and the two lanes of 110km/hr traffic.  This meant we had no interaction with the traffic (other than friendly toots).  Although the scenery is not that inspiring and traffic can noisy, it was a good way to make fast progress north and we powered along in high gear with a slight tail wind.

We stopped at a nice rest area just off the highway for lunch at only 11am then continued at pace along the highway.  Just short of the Kew turn-off Jennie got another rear flat, again on wire from shredded steel belted tires.  We found a spot off the highway to fix the flat and got going again only to have the tire go flat a few km up the road.  We pulled more wire out of the tire (maybe missed it when looking earlier) and replaced the tube.  We then cycled the last few km into the nice town of Laurieton.  We did some groceries then had a beer on the deck of the busy pub.  After that we cycled through quiet streets and along a fantastic breakwater path to the caravan park.

After setting up the tent, showering and repairing 3 inner tubes, we went for a walk along the breakwater to the mouth of the river with great views of the surf, surfers and coastline.  We also saw dolphins in the river mouth which are really hard to photograph but were great to watch as such close quarters.

After our walk we cooked dinner and chatted to the friendly grey nomads.  The Jacaranda Tourist Park has lots of nice little features like wine glasses, pots and pans, kitchen décor, a bath in the amenities block, etc.

Highlight of today:  North Haven

Not far to go now!!

Lunch in a nice rest area

North Haven Breakwater

Snow at home in Wanaka! Not like that here in sunny northern NSW.