The journey from Dargeville to Pouto Point started off well. Avi and John had dropped me 12kms out of Dargeville, where they found me, and I did the easy ride into the town itself early morning.
In fact, given how my previous day went, that’s how I was planning on treating this one – a bit of a gentle rest day as I rolled along the country road for an easy 75km. I was a bit sore from the previous day’s effort, so I wasn’t of the mind to bust a bone getting to Pouto Point as fast as I could.
The weather was stinking hot, and the road meandered through a forestry area. Mostly, it was tarsealed, and surrounded by pine forests whose branches emitted a sweet pungent pine fragrance.
There’s only really one dairy on the way down there, so I stopped off for a pie and a Powerade, while the country school children cycled around the block for thier PE class.
Quite idealic, if uninteresting, as I cycled by myself for hours and hours in the hot sun, listening to some old Rhetoric lectures I had downloaded in about 2005, when the internet wasn’t behind a pay wall.
I was riding by Google Maps and it told me there was 50 kms to Pouto; but the official Tour guide showed 75km. And the last 25 were a gravel track: Pouto (where the school, church and Marae is) turns out to be different from Pouto Point (where the camp ground, and ferry is), and I’m heading towards the later. And now late, but I hadn’t factored in the 25km extra into my dweadling speed.
The last 25km into Pouto Point were not fun. Unlike the tarsealed road, where steep hills also had a gentle inclination, these gravel hills were nothing but short hard hills. And I was still saddle sore from the previous day.
In the sun, it was hot, dirty, dusty, hard and uncomfortable. And again, the ever present time pressure.
I meet up with another group: Ella and Jeff, John, and Luigi and Trail Troll. Together we all road this horrible track to Pouto Point.
I got to the boat and slept on it. My brother Greg picked me up on the Auckland side.