Ahipara to Waipoua 125 km +2024 m / -1951 m 9 hours riding time
This morning I crawled out of my sleeping bag still dehydrated from the beach and nothing but food on my mind, well thats not true, Ferries were the other thing of great importance. I took way too long to get started this morning, but got all day. However only till tomorrow about 4 pm to get the boat that would be a real pain if I missed it as it would cost me a day and not being the worlds fastest rider to lose a day at this early stage wouldn’t be good.
So yes I had all day but still had about 240 km to ride over 2 days and its not going to be flat.
The only problem of being by the sea is going inland means up and today’s ride was a real roller coaster and the goal was two-fold
- Be in Rawene before the last ferry at 7pm
- Cover over 120km
That may not sound like a lot to some but with my longest training ride being 100 km it was a stretch for me and again the far north was living up to its reputation for great weather and it was in the 30s celsius again, and no matter how much I drank, I knew it was not enough.
So the order of the day became up down gravel road more up and gravel, following the path less traveled. I rode alone for most of the morning till a bumped into a women who was riding the TA also while I was trying to work out which way to go at a junction that wasn’t that clear. She came up the road and I mean really UP, she had sailed passed the corner and down the 9km hill and then had to come back up to this junction, she recommend the down hill, but not the return trip.
Rather pleased to get to the ferry to Rawene, this was the first of 5 boats required to complete the ride, so in my mind it was a milestone, but of course I just missed it so a 20 minute break, plenty of time to fill up at the food truck, on a huge milkshake, burger and coffee and a cake and a chat with the locals.
During my wait I was joined by a rider who had left his wallet in the campsite at Ahipara he had realised when he got to the ferry and was about to pay, he then turned back and rode the 60km back to collect it, when I saw him he looked pretty fresh and was pushing on, he had already ridden 180km that day, he seemed really up beat about the whole thing!
On the other side I briefly met up again with another rider while shopping in Rawene her name is Marilyn, it seemed already that the riders were falling into loose groups created by pace. Off I went with the new goal of reaching Tāne Mahuta, New Zealand’s largest living kauri tree.
I reached Tāne just before dark and as a fellow breveter Craig was leaving, he said he was going to a campsite a little further on down the track. Got my photos of Tāne and then had a desperate rush for the bathroom, seems that food truck hygiene may not have been great and it left me still further dehydrated.
I left Tāne Mahuta in the dark and it was really cold, it was like the lights went out and I was in a fridge and shivering. Riding through the forest in the dark is quite something and the noise volume is crazy and everything going bump in the night.
I rode on into the darkness not knowing where this camp was and then out of the darkness I saw a sign saying 4km, the last few km were down hill which was nice but again very cold, it took an age to find the campsite in the dark, I’m sure I was the last to arrive all I could hear was snoring, but I could see loads of bikes so I was pretty chuffed to be there on night 2. So a 13 hour day, ended with shower food and bed.
Going Slowly 