What’s that smell?

As we go along the west coast, riding to the northernmost point of the North Island, we pass long pockets of an earthy smell of warm honey. At first, with all the beehives around, we thought that was the source.

Sean, one of our guides, a naturalist and environmentalist, among many other badges, wondered if it was the honeydew, a sweet secretion from a scale insect found on trees - ew.

Then, as we just stood there in the heat, there was that smell again, and he knew just what it was - NZ Tea Tree - a kind of spruce. When you rub the sharp needles, its fragrance blooms. If bee keepers, whose beehives stand unprotected since there are no bears (shocking NH folks when they ride by), they place their hives near the Tea Trees to enhance their Manuka honey.

I just breathe deeply while I suck wind on the uphills, and I almost forget my quads. Almost...

Ti Pikinga Reeserve

Waipu 

Cape Reinga

                                                        Inhale...