Our local copper Air BNB host got home at 2 am…we assumed…so we snuck out as quietly as we could so as to not disturb him. He has left us food out for breakfast but we decided to find somewhere in town…again, so as not to wake him.

Town was rocking at 730am, and we found ourselves a nice spot to enjoy our breakfast.

Setting off up the hill out of Raglan the day was gorgeous. No wind, and a very rideable 18 degrees.

The day was a tough one to finish on. It was literally up and down all day.

At times we had no idea where we were, but kept following our Garmin instructions.

We were both really thirsty today and were drinking heaps. Water became an issue with no towns in sight. I noted a lady outside her farmhouse , so wandered in and asked if we could possibly have some water for our bottles. She was more than happy to oblige.

Another 30 km later, we were running dry and still had seen nothing open. We found a community hall so checked it out, and found a house with water coming from their storage tank.

We soldiered on.

We stopped at this signpost as Garmin was turning us right, rather than following Highway 22. It was pretty warm now, and our Garmin indicated mid 30’s. We had some of our emergency food….in my case, pear and mango baby sachet!

Here is Tony’s preferred baby food…..

This is where I disagree with Garmin’s route. It took us off the highway up a bitumen hill…that’s ok…then turned us left onto a damn gravel road….that had the worst camber incline to date …it was so steep  loose and slippery…

Anyway 4 km later I popped out the other end.  It was a tad shorter than the highway but about 4 times slower….

We were hankering for more food and were very excited to see this sign as we were climbing a hill.

An odd combination to advertise for a petrol station but surely they had cold goods. We were hot, thirsty and hungry.

$40 later….

It was interesting to note the difference between diesel and unleaded. In Australia diesel is more expensive. Note the differential in New Zealand.

Our accomodation is in Papatoetoe a southern suburb of Auckland chosen because of its proximity to the airport, and the start and end point for this tour.

Nevertheless we needed to negotiate a fair bit of built up humanity and traffic, complete with the normal offenders such as the dude who did a u-turn into the bike lane, or the other guy who sped past us to then turn left….we needed to break heavily to ensure we missed his side passenger doors…morons!

After 138 hot, sweaty, thirsty kilometres we arrived in Papatoetoe…

It is always mixed feelings I have at the end of a bike tour. Lots of memories, lots of hard work, great sense of achievement and accomplishment, but…it’s over!!

This was also the longest unsupported tour I have completed. I have done longer supported rides ( ie where someone transfers your gear, and your bikes are heaps lighter).

Tomorroe is another day and my kiwi friend Jacqui is putting on a bbq for us tomorrow, and friends John and Suzanne have invited us up to Snells Beach for NY…and have  Tasmanian champagne on ice!!

The bikes have been cleaned and in the process of being disassembled and packed for the trip home.

There they will undergo further work and upgrades ready for our next tour….in April we head to Europe for 5-6 weeks…..with our bikes!!

2018 has been a wonderful cycling year!