Day 4

I thought today would be easy, especially compared to the last two. Like a rest day, kind of.

But it was pretty soul sapping. Maybe because I though it was about 85km to Clevedon when it is 105km – or maybe because spending nearly a whole day crossing a busy city is tiring and mentally draining.

Unfortunately it was another 430am start – I knew some speedy people were going to get up and leave the hall we were sleeping in early, but when we’d arrived in Parakai it was late, and raining, and another night tenting lacked appeal. The hall was the simplest option – and the pizza next door and the shower was awesome. The snoring less so.

Even though I was awake, I didn’t bother to get up till 7, since it seemed smart to avoid the rush hour into Auckland. I had a nice cafe breakfast with Taylor, and we caught up with Alan and Ray, two super inspiring brothers who aren’t exactly spring chickens. Ray’s a sponsored athlete and the NZo van dropped by to give him some new gear!

So it was over the rolling hills towards Auckland. Yet again I managed to (briefly!) go the wrong way. But then navigation into the city from the north was pretty simple thanks to the signposted northwestern cycleway. There was a pesky headwind though, and many more little climbs than I expected.

Eventually I ended up in Mt Eden, where I caught up with Russ and Barbara. We pushed our bikes for a bit to stretch our legs while we chatted. They’d gone on the shuttle instead of the boat over the Kaipara harbour – and their stories of bikes in a heap and pedals stuck in spokes made me doubly glad I’d opted for the ferry. After that bus ride north I am even more paranoid than usual about potential bike damage and it was certainly a factor in my choice!

One of the most exciting moments of my day was walking into Mt Eden Cycles and buying their last bottle of Rocknroll Holy Cow. It’s not always easy to get hold of – especially in Wellington – and I had very low expectations of being able to get more, though it had become glaringly obvious my little bottle was way insufficient. I’m officially a bike lube snob – Finishline green no longer cuts it.

When we got up to the top of Mt Eden, it was cool to see Josh had beaten us there! Taylor also turned up, and the lovely German couple. All the tourist looked a little puzzled at our loaded bikes and our guzzling of food.

After lunch, Taylor and I decided to team up and take on the maze that was the route south. This turned out to be an excellent idea, with my app’s verbal cues and Taylor’s reading of the cue book working well together. But it still took ages! The rain came and went, and when it rains I need to put my phone away, which makes it harder to hear my deadpan Australian woman voicing the cues…

Taylor was doing the Hunua route, and at about 515 we finally reached the route split and parted ways, grateful for the teamwork especially in the heavy traffic. Turning towards the coastal route, I only had 7km to go to Clevedon – yay! – where I’d booked a room at the pub. My second happy moment of the day was successfully influencing the duty manager to let me take my bike into my room, where it can rest under my beady eye.