Wow! What a day! The whole thing kicked off with my really bad sleep and worry that I’d be the ugly duckling and left behind. The insightful reader might have detected a trace of worry in my words.
Gulzar (the Broadwood General Store GM) picked me up on the side of the road in KeriKeri at 6:40 and I got to Broadwood at 7:30.
And then started a day of absolute determination to get to Dargeville.
The logistics didn’t work out any other way: there’s no sailing between Pouto Point and Helensville on Sat/Sun, so I had to be at PP before 5:30 Friday. But PP is 75kms from Dargeville, which was 135km from Broadwood. If I stood ANY change, I had to pull it out on Thursday and ride 135kms.
And I did.
I hurt like hell – my butt feels like I’ve been worked over by a prison, I’ve got blisters on my feet from my shoes, and I’ve got sore muscles that ached from climbing up to Tane Mahatu and around that area.
But I’m on track, and caught up with some of my contemporaries from my Monday wave.
I also met 2 new friends: Avi and John. Avi is from Fiji orginally, but has just moved up to Kaikohe. John is his 76 year old neighbour and together they were off on a bit of a road trip to look around the place.
I first met them in Awatere at 10:00am , but both of our paths crossed over as we met again in Onoponi and again half way between Omapere and Tane Mahuta. Both them and I were heading to Dargeville.
They offered to help and we swapped numbers which turned out to be invaluable. At 9:00, I was 12km out of Dargeville, it was pitch black and dangerous (I do have lights), but mostly my legs were shot. Avi and John came out and collected me and took me into Dargeville – a much needed rescue 🙂
This morning, they took me back to the spot they collected me from, and I rode the 12 kms into Dargeville before getting onto the Pouto Point leg.
OTHER INTERESTING PEOPLE:
(1) Donnelly’s Crossing: A fantastic group of people with a tight community spirit. They both made me feel welcome and were engaging and interesting. Kindly, if I wasn’t able to arrange Dargeville accommodation, one of the locals gave me their daughter’s number and called a head telling her I might be camping on her sofa.
(2) TA Groupie: there’s a lovely couple from Christchurch who are toodling around in there camper van following riders using the tour of Aotearoa app. I met them at Tane Mahuta. Nice people.