Go North young man!

It was a 5 am start this morning. I was feeling quite tired because I spent another couple of hours fiddling with Greg's Garmin. I did a factory reset, several firmware updates, and tried recreating the course files several times, but I just couldn't get the Garmin to install the Tour Aotearoa course files. In the end, I tried using a different format for the files (.crs instead of .tcx) and that worked!
Another hour was spent converting all the course files to .crs format and installing it all -- successfully at last. Whew!

The Tour Aotearoa Route 3,000 kms

We checked out at 5.30am and loaded our two bike boxes onto the shuttle bus. Little did we know that the bus stopped at another hotel on the way to the airport, and another seven TA riders got on. It was standing room only, frantically holding onto a big stack of bike boxes to stop them from falling over as the bus made its way to the airport.

At the airport, I met several people I'd talked to via Facebook. Everyone was friendly, excited and keen to go. It took an hour to load the bikes into the truck, and then another big delay in Auckland while the rest of the riders got on. We had breakfast at a cafe in the city, before getting back on the bus and finally leaving Auckland.

Loading up at Auckland International Airport

The journey up North took all day. We stopped in Whangarei for a snack and to stretch our legs before continuing north. We passed lots of paddocks which were partly flooded, and the streams looked quite high. I don't think we'll have too much trouble finding water.  It was interesting to see the different plants up north: banana plants, coconut palms, and other plants I couldn't recognise, growing among the pine trees, bamboo, tree ferns, nikau palms, toi toi and pohutukawa.

There were lots of hills, and some looked very big indeed. This is certainly a hilly part of the country.
At one point we saw a Tour Aotearoa rider, heading North. He had about 180 km to go the Cape Reinga. 

 The vegetation is very different up here. I felt like I was on a sub-tropical island -- which of course I was!  We passed over a range called Maungataniwha -- monster Mountain. It's huge...I'm glad we are riding further to the west -- though I'm not sure it'll be much better.

Kaitaia was a stop for food at the library cafe. I got to enjoy a pie (there wasn't much else). No doubt it'll be the first of many.  I noticed that they grew bamboo as wind breaks. I wonder how they stop it growing everywhere. It works very well.

At one point there were road works. The stop-go man waved us on, only to meet a stream of cars coming the other way! Typical...I wonder what drug he was on.  The countryside changed to small rolling hills, and grass growing on sand. It felt coastal, though we couldn't see the ocean.

The bus finally dropped us off at a place called Waitiki Landing at about 4:30.  A lot of riders stayed there for the night, as they had cabins and a restaurant, but we pressed on for the Tapotupotu campground, about 4 km from Cape Reinga.  It's quite hilly up here, with climbs that went on and on. We climbed about 480 metres in 20 km. I stopped a few times to take photos, enjoying the journey. I also discovered that my GoPro wasn't working...I think I might have left it on and had it run out of batteries, so I'm charging it tonight.

Tapotupotu campground is an amazing spot, right on the beach. There were toilets and running water, though we had to filter it. I set my tent overlooking the Pacific ocean, and we sat at a nearby picnic table to prepare a dinner of rice, carrots, onion, broccoli, salami and (for me) Parmesan cheese. It was hilarious cutting vegetables with a tiny pocket knife, but it was sharp and worked well. Dinner was delicious!

Richard Harding joined us, and ate our leftovers. An amazing moon rose over the hills. If it wasn't for the sand flies this place would be perfect -- they're the worst I've seen outside of Southland. We had to run around while packing away our things, and then rush off to our tents because we were being bitten so badly.

About 20 sand flies got inside my tent, so I had a battle killing them while they attacked me from behinds, but I think I got them all in the end.  Now I'm lying in my tent listening to the waves on the beach, thinking about what tomorrow might bring.  Unfortunately I'm very itchy from all the sandfly bites, so I'm not sure how well I'll sleep.