Little love

It was an inelegant start to my first bike ride in 10 years but, once I had picked the gravel from my bleeding leg and lowered my seat, the rest was brilliant.

There were three others in our biker gang – my partner Finn and our guides Carol and Peter – and we were following the Karangahake Gorge historic trail from Paeroa to the Waihi rail line.

We rode for a kilometre through a dark and dripping tunnel and emerged in the sun beside the swollen green Ohinemuri River. With the gravel popping under our tyres like bubble wrap, we peddled over narrow bridges, past old mining relics, and stopped to admire waterfalls just off the track.

The route we took was a short section of the Hauraki Rail Trail, a two-day ride through the countryside of Thames, Paeroa, Te Aroha and Waihi. The trail is opening in bits and pieces but, Peter told us, the full ride will open later in the year.

We were staying nearby in Te Aroha, a tiny spa town nestled against a magnificent mountain. When I told people we were going there, I was met mostly with blank stares. Some had never heard of it and those who had couldn’t place it on a map.

A century ago things were very different. Te Aroha was once New Zealand’s most popular spa destination and a thriving town was developed around the springs. An elegant domain was created at the foot of Mt Te Aroha, with several bath houses, bowling greens, a tennis court and a band rotunda.

The glory days ended when Rotorua was included in the main rail network and prospered while Te Aroha slipped, gradually, off the radar. Visitor numbers declined and many of the domain’s buildings were closed.

When we visited, we found neither the bustling resort it once was, nor a ghost town gathering cobwebs. Instead, we discovered a pretty little place making a comeback.

Work has been carried out on the domain in recent years, and many of the original Edwardian buildings have been restored to their former glory. The hot soda spring still flows from the base of Mt Te Aroha, but now it fills the modern wooden tubs of Te Aroha Mineral Spas.

And, although our bike ride was hardly arduous, we decided we’d accumulated enough aches and pains to warrant a soak in one of the spa’s private tubs. We needed to get the Romance Package, too – because I’d heard chocolate and candlelight were good for grazed legs.

The local cuisine (also good for recovery) was impressive. I ate melt-in-the-mouth steak at Ironique on the main street, had simple fresh gurnard at the Italian place, Burlusconi, and perfectly cooked Eggs Benedict at cafe-come-interiors shop, Espresso Banco.

I came back from Te Aroha feeling like I had stumbled on a secret. Granted, I had also stumbled on a fence and had the scabs to prove it (my first in 10 years), but that was all part of the adventure. In fact, I’m now looking to buy a bike.