Day 5

It was probably good thing I was too wired to go to bed early as someone was doing burnouts in the hotel car park right outside my room at 1030pm…

Thankfully it wasn’t another 430 wake up. I was pretty pleased to be woken by traffic noise and see it was already 630! Took me a while to pack up in my still tired state and by 8 I was sitting outside a nearby cafe having a filled roll (it wasn’t the world’s greatest cafe) and a triple shot.

I looked at the trackers and saw Josh wasn’t that far away, despite having stayed last night in Auckland! So I had a leisurely first hour or so, keen for some company again. He’d started at 530 and made really good time.

We rode around the coast, it was a bit windy but not a direct headwind. At one point we bought a giant bag of grapes for $3, then had a nice stop in Kaiaua eating them. I also had an ice cream. Not exactly a well balanced lunch but what I felt like at the time! I did stash a toasted sandwich for later.

We saw the massive damage the recent storm had done to the shoreline – lots of sand and shells everywhere, road eroded down to single line in one place. A local told us she watched the devastation from her house up the hill, and it had happened in a single surge.

We reached the start of the hauraki rail trail and had a think about where to go that night. We’d passed Miranda at only 130 – too early to stop! Someone had posted to the TA fb group about a nice pub/hotel in Puriri, and with camping options nonexistent for the next 60km that seemed like a good bet so I rung up and booked some beds.

The next section along the trail was a test of endurance – a headwind, a poorly done gravel surface and extremely mundane views. In fact I hardly took any photos today!

Finally we turned a bit of a corner and the wind became a bit less heady. We made it to Kopu and ducked into a service station to buy some dinner supplies, as we weren’t sure what awaited us.

The last 8km was better surface, views and tailwind, though we were pretty jaded and counting down the kms. Thankfully it was easy to find the hotel, where we were welcomed warmly and told to bring our bikes inside (always a good sign!). And it looked like they served food, even better.

My room was half the price of last nights and much much nicer… as was the ambience in the pub. We were offered laundry facilities and I was able to hang my tent out to dry (after two days rolled up wet from dew). We managed to ingest a few vegetables at dinner along with the carbs and protein – it’s always a challenge managing nutrition in events like this.

It was also good to chat with David who arrived about then and joined us in the pub. Like Josh he’d come from Auckland today (150km!) while my day was a more moderate 100km. Today I was trying harder to eat and drink more but it’s a real challenge getting enough fluid and calories. Something to work on tomorrow!