Saturday dragged slowly….I got up at my normal 5.30am and did a few hours training, packed my bags, did loads of washing, house cleaned, emptied the fridge, and still had spare time!  I sat around twiddling my thumbs thinking about the extra km I could have done that morning training.

This is my bike bag packed…

It is summer in Australia, not that you would know that as we walked onto the plane. You can see the bikes at the back of the luggage. It was cold and wet….

The plane was delayed out of Melbourne. By the time we arrived in Auckland, collected our gear, transferred by taxi to our accomodation it 2.38 am when we got to bed.

I guess we got 3 hours reasonable sleep, then 1 hour drowsy style thanks to the most raucous sounding cat I have ever heard. It sounded like a sulphur crested cockatoo. Eventually, the noise made its way into our bedroom. This is what stood on my chest, dribbling saliva, loudly demanding my attention.

I was soo tired…

Cluedo has a counterpart…the much quieter Yahtzi. Glad they did not have one named Jumanji! That could be really scary!

So 4 hours sleep was all we were going to get. Coffee, coffee, coffee…wherefore art thou coffee!! Right, I’m off to search for it, and if Cluedo gets lucky, I might find him some food to shut him up!!

My resident bike mechanic kindly put my bike together and sorted out a derailleur issue.  We posed for an obligatory selfie before heading off.

Plenty of stopping and starting getting out of Auckland with traffic lights galore.  Our first stop was Cleveland. Looking for a bank….no go, but did find a cafe with a few cyclists, so ordered an iced coffee.  It went down a treat and we also got to chat with local cyclists…who thought we were mad too.

We had some nice little climbs, nice views. It was really warm too, hitting nearly 28 degrees.  For the first time I appreciated the headwind breeze in the morning.

The last chunk of the ride was relatively flat following the shoreline.  I was amazed by the tremendous road damage from the one in a hundred year storm in early January that Sue and I got caught up in. Landslides, road washed away…partial rocky and gravel roads…and then BANG…first puncture.

So nice having a resident bike mechanic….Thankyou Tony 😊

The shoreline ranges from shelly to rocky, with cockles being collected in the area. The daily limit is 50 cockles per person, per day.

We are staying in a great Air BnB right on the water front. During the storm in January, the high tide came to the top of the second step.

Directly behind our unit is a Maori burial ground with some impressive memorials. Out of respect I took no photos.

Our data from today…

The highlight today was meeting Jane and Adrian, friends we have both shared through  Zwift.  Recently they relocated from Gore ( South Island) to Thames ( North Island). We are most appreciative that they made themselves available to meet and chat.  We enjoyed a great meal together at the pub ‘down the road’.

So first day done…well it was really a half day ride providing us the opportunity to get used to the touring bike with gear on it.

Tomorrow is a bit longer, just over 100 km with a bit of climbing, warming us up for day 3.

Guaranteed that tonight we will hit the sack early.  This is the view from our deck as I get ready to post this blog.  It is also where we are heading tomorrow.

Ooroo, sweet dreams 😊💪🚴