Month: February 2018

I was awake at 430 so didn’t need the alarm I’d set for 445! It was a speedy pack up then along to the camp cafe for the promised 530 breakfast – and we were off by 6 as planned.

The first hour of riding was in the dark, through the forest, mostly in silence, climbing gently. Then a cool, twisting gravel descent just as the sun rose. I was riding with Josh and we knew we needed to keep a good pace all day to make the boat.

About half an hour before Dargaville, we came across three lovely young trail angels who were handing out sliced melon and icy water, and super keen to chat. Everyone was stopping and very appreciative. Heart warming stuff 🙂

A lot of us caught up together in Dargaville for a quick food restock and a phone confirmation that the ferry would run at 4pm. It was hot; it’s continually hard to drink enough and stay properly hydrated.

Pushing on – after a few stretches to the amusement of a friendly local – we headed down the peninsula, having joined up with Lance who is doing a very cool vlog everyday for NZ Mountain Biker mag. While we were having a water stop, Ellen caught up and the four of us diced with the logging trucks and cross winds together for a few hours.

It was a great afternoon, I was feeling good and appreciating how much of a privilege it was to have this epic adventure in the company of like-minded people. Apart from the last hour or so, that is, when it started to rain, the gravel got really rough and there was always another hill around the corner that we’d thought marked the top.

I took a fall on one particularly rough corner but unclipped in time to avoid real injury. Later we learned others weren’t so lucky, with Nick and Ian now sporting some pretty serious wounds from a high speed wheel touch.

We got to Pouto at 315 – me, Ellen and Josh were the last to make it! And then it was the tricky task of loading the boat in a rough sea. We joined about 40 people, some from wave 4 and some fellow wave 5s we hadn’t seen since the start! Now we’re sitting on the ferry and get into Parakai around 730. Priorities for me will be dinner and shower!

I’ll probably take it a bit easier tomorrow, after two hard days and not much quality sleep. It’s great having plenty of time up my sleeve. Feeling pretty good though. Had a chat with Simon Kennett just now who is travelling with his daughter Miro on a tandem – inspiring stuff!

Today was awesome. I didn’t exactly take off early, leaving Ahipara around 745. There were lots of gentle ups and down and pastoral scenery, before a gravel road section. My bike’s good on gravel and my climbing legs were feeling sprightly. It was a nice zoom to the where the vehicle ferry goes across the harbour. I was on my own all morning though did a bit of leapfrogging of Sam and his riding companion.

After Rawene, where there was a nice spontaneous regroup at the public toilet, I headed off alone but quite soon started riding with Josh, for the rest of the day our paces were pretty well matched and it was good to have someone to chat with up the (now big!) hills. We climbed 300m up into the kauri forest

Eventually after a few stops (and an emergency gel) we were at Tane Manuta. I loved the kauri forest but it was sad to see dead and dying trees every now and then – the creeping tragedy of dieback.

Then there was a mindblowing downhill, weaving through the forest. And we arrived at Waipoua forest camp, where the lovely (and enterprising) owner is catering dinners and breakfasts for TAers. Lasagne and salad and ice cream!

And I’ll be there for the 530 breakfast tomorrow – going to try and make the 4pm boat, if it’s running. This morning I’d entertained the idea of going past Waipoua today to make tomorrow easier, but by the time I got here at 530 that had ceased to be an option! Will have to post this in the morning – the cafe has coverage but the campsite doesn’t.

I spent quite a lot of last night trying not to think about my tyre and the damage inflicted by the bike trailer yesterday. Of course in my mind during the course of the night, this damage grew substantially in size and scope. These thoughts were interspersed with the realisation I had no idea where the bag with my lights was. Not in the tent with my other stuff…

Finally morning came and I could get ready for the final stretch of our bus journey, 30 minutes more to the Cape. Just before I finished packing up, I found my lights, in the special pocket where I had put them for safe keeping the previous day… A happy moment.

Finally we were there and everything now needed to be on the bike and ready! Just when I was nearly sorted, I noticed a guy standing near me, and following my resolution on this trip to be more open to talking to strangers, had a chat. The talk turned to my tyre concerns. I said, maybe I’ll get the mechanic in Dargaville to have a look at it. He said, I’m a mechanic. So it was awesome to have some reassurance that it’s just rubber rubbed off the sidewall and the casing doesn’t seem to be damaged, which is the key component. Visions of exploding rear tyre receded.

So we went, it was fast down sealed hills to start with, then very crunchy sandy stream bed. Crunchy in that that was the noise from the bike! Thankfully Ian had warned me not to ruin my brake pads by braking too much.

Then 80 km of long flat sandy beach. Luckily conditions were good and you could average 20kph. A bit of the time I rode alone, sometime had chats with others, then for the afternoon rode with Nigel (who I had met at the Gravel Grind) and Catherine, who we had both just met, and chatting definitely helped the time pass by.

The last hour was a headwind and tougher! But we got here to Ahipara pretty early, time enough to give the bike a good clean, swap in a new chain, wash clothes, have takeaways and do stretches.

I feel so much better now than last night, when my mind was filled with what could go wrong and why was I doing this actually. Turns out most other people slept badly too.

I’m on a bus with nearly 40 other TAers heading from Auckland to the Cape. Hoping my bike is surviving the travel well!

There’s heaps of variations in bikes, experience and time expectation but everyone seems enthusiastic about the challenge ahead. And probably happy to have stopped organising and preparing, and be about to ride.