Mighty hills and a mighty Tree - Tour Aotearoa

We didn't wake until about 7am, after the late night the previous evening. We broke camp, and Greg promptly managed to rip his tent bag. Damn.  We had breakfast in the campground kitchen, then prepared to leave. Quite a few riders were still there, sorting themselves out.

We left at about. 8:15, and right from the start the hills began. We met Kelly, Neville, a crazy woman from Virginia who had raced the Wembo 24-hour race in Rotorua three days before the start of the Tour Aotearoa. She's certainly keen!

At Broadwood we stopped for another pie, before we turned off the main road and the serious climbing began. The hills were endless as we made our way south.  About 5 km from Kohukohu, still way above the water, I saw a sign that said "Krippner Road". I wonder if that has anything to do with the Krippner who was Ruth's ancestor?

After one final, unexpected and nasty climb, we descended into Kohukohu. On the way down, we passed fields of wild ginger with weird orange flowers.

We reached Kohukohu at about 12:45am, and immediately rode to the Rawene ferry terminal 4 km down the road. We arrived five minutes before the ferry left...perfect.

In Rawene, we went to a cafe for lunch. The place looked a bit fancy, but they offered muesli, yogurt and fruit, which I jumped at after the diet of stodgy pies. The food took ages to arrive, and unfortunately my lunch only had about three tablespoons of muesli!  I was still hungry, but we had waited long enough so we pressed on.

About 20 km further down the road, I noticed a banana plant growing on the side of the road. I took a closer look, and it had a bunch of bananas growing on it...and they were ripe!  They were absolutely delicious! After I'd eaten about five, the whole bunch came off in my hand. I ate as many as I could, and left the bunch on the side of the road hoping riders behind us would notice it and help themselves. I also filled my jersey pocket with as many as I could carry.

 About 15 km further on, we reached Omapere, where we stopped at a store for yet more food. We also bought some supplies for later on. They only had boxes of oatmeal, so I put it into two ziplock bags, but I could only carry one so someone suggested I tuck the second one under my Spot tracker. That seemed to work well.

From Omapere, we climbed over a huge hill, and stopped at another town for some more chocolate milk, before starting the last big climb of the day. 400 metres straight up the hill.

The climb was exhausting. Greg started to cramp, and had to walk for a while. The road entered the Waipoua forest, and we finally reached the top at about 6 o'clock. Shortly afterwards, we reached Tane Mahuta, which was a photo control point. We didn't realise but Tane Mahuta was in a saddle, and we had another five minutes of gentle climbing before we finally began to descend through the kauri forest.

We passed lots of kauri trees, and there were holes in the road to let their roots get rainwater. In the half light it was quite a surreal place.

At the bottom was a campground about 2 km off the route. At last!  We had ridden 126 km for the day, and climbed over 2,100 metres.

Lying in my tent, I could hear a chorus of Moreporks, and during the night I heard something that may have been the screech of a Kiwi in the distance. An amazing place.