booked at Havelock North, still some 75km away. It was a 440km day. I’ m no camper, but Lance had us set up and we got all our gear into his three man tent and slept on one-inch air mattresses. I was happily surprised they didn’ t deflate in the night, but it took its toll on my back, anyway, the Nurofen intake was rising. We had huge days heading north- nearly nine hours of riding each day, and a good rest is essential to keeping alert levels high. Camping is a younger guys game, sadly.
JANUARY 12 We started in the morning by heading up Te Mata Peak, us and hundreds of joggers and mountain bikers, and bitterly cold it was too, but deeply spectacular, particularly the sloping launch pad for hangliders. Bloody terrifying just looking at it, sloping downwards … and straight over a several hundred foot drop, no hand rails – nothin! The stuff of nightmares. The day’ s run along the coast and up to Tolaga
Bay had been going to be interrupted by a planned run out to the Mahia Peninsula, the site of Rocket Labs’ launch site, but again the weather was rolling in and ominous from that direction, so we had some of the fastest parts of our trip- into Uawa, exhilarating and great roads. North of that the remoteness, and the budgetary lack in roading, became clear- there were some seriously messed up sections that need fixing urgently, I think the East Cape area deserves better treatment by the roading authorities. We arrived at Te Araroa tired but happy with another 400km under the belt for the day.
Te Mata Peak launching pad
Havelock North
Lance at the top of the peak
98 KIWI RIDER