It’s a long way to the top of the country. After two flights we’re not even there yet! I’ve arrived in the Bay of Islands town of Kerikeri.  There is a shuttle service that will take a group of us to Cape Reinga tomorrow.

I met another TA cyclist, Chris, on the same flight, so we assembled our wheel(s) together. Needless to say, I was ready to ride in 5min but it took somewhat longer to assemble his bike.  My unicycle packing needs work though- I’m not sure if it’s one too many wines at the Air NZ Koru Lounge or my top heavy pack, but it was a rather wobbly ride to our accommodation. 

Chris entered TA at the last minute, and had issues with his brake line. Luckily a local cyclist came past and contacted a mobile bike mechanic, who came over to fix the hydraulics. Pretty awesome thing to sort at 7pm in a small town!

I went for a quick ride to the river to look around- the last time I was here must have been when I was 10yrs old. Kerikeri is rather quaint, with plenty of old buildings from early European settlement. I found NZ’s oldest surviving pear tree (actually NZ’s oldest exotic tree), planted over 200yrs ago by a missionary. I wish I has another day or two to explore!  

Side note: now that I’m officially away, I am blogging via mobile phone, which is a PITA. I can’t get the embed code off mobile Flickr, so there won’t be photos on this blog until I get home. I will keep adding photos on Flickr though. You can view the Tour Aotearoa Flickr album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzD19G