The penultimate day…the day the destination is reached.

We checked out the beach and Tasman sea.

We decided to leave early. Well in theory it was earlier but then Sue had a problem clearing. The $1 nail file was produced as well as a teleconference with the support Auckland crew. Shoe cleated.

Passed a bakery a few km later. I was starving so we stopped and I had scrambled eggs and bacon. The chef came out to talk cycling. Hunger satiated.

We spent many kilometres today on the highway but we also rode through some lovely coastal hamlets and the Queen Elizabeth gardens.

Rain pelted down and we ended up pulling into a McDonalds to use their free wifi and wait for the rain to ease. We contemplated catching the train as we could see the line adjacent to Maccas.

The trip notes took us through higher hills. However the rain clouds were so low that we felt our safety would be greater on the lower level highway. We had no lights to increase visibility on the hills.

The sky lifted and we determined a new route. In theory the route looked ok, in practice a different story.

We headed down the highway, nice bitumen! A sign indicated cyclists needed to leave the highway at next exit, which we did. We then followed the sign for Wellington and we were cruising along nicely despite truck toots.

There are roadworks in the area. A lady worker screamed at me. Hmm…sinking realisation that we had in fact rejoined the motorway! No easy way off either… we just had to suck it up until the next exit in 2km.

A police car screamed past, sirens screaming, lights flashing and pulled onto the verge where we were riding.

So yes, umm, aaah!

Fortunately the officer was very friendly. I explained how it occurred and how we planned to exit. I apologised multiple times.He photographed my passport and pulled his phone out to confirm the route he thought we should follow…

I suggested a police escort would be cool…but no!

Eventually we descended into central Wellington down the impressive Cashmere Road with magnificent views of the city.

We declared our journey complete at the office of Shane.. a man we had never met, but friend of Zwifter Barry. He had kindly offered to accomodate us for three nights, despite never having met us.

For Sue and I our bike journey is complete.

I am wearing cleaner clothes! All my clothes from the last 9 days pong despite daily hand washing! I have used some decent hair shampoo and conditioner and it feels softer!

My sincere thanks and gratitude to Sue for an awesome job riding, for being my researcher, photographer, fixer upper, wise counsellor and most of all, my greatly valued and loved friend. We have had so many laughs together, many of which could not be shared on this blog.

A lifetime of memories!