I set off much later today to avoid rush hour traffic into Auckland.  After feeding and hydrating myself last night, I was feeling a lot better. 
For the first time, I was enjoying the ride. The day was much cooler with a light breeze and cloud. 
A few people knew who I was as I went past, so had obviously been watching the maprogress tracker. 

As I arrived into Auckland, I saw something that looked vaguely familiar coming toward me. It looks like a unicycle. Lo and behold, it was Tony Melton coming out for ride. We met Bryan Page further up the road, so I had two unicyclists escorting me into Auckland. How cool is that! 
I was joined shortly after by Cam, the TA rider who helped me out the first day. He had stopped his TA ride at his home in Auckland due to work commitments. 

They took me to Benny’s cycles along the way.  A guy with a cool mustache came out, looking very much like his bike shop logo…guess that must be Benny!
Benny fixed a bottle cage to my unicycle, which meant I could carry more water on long stretches, or avoid having to carry it in my backpack. Speaking of which…I dumped another 1/2 kg of unnecessary junk, so now my pack felt almost race worthy!
My legs felt good enough today that I rode all the way up Mt Eden…the difference a few kg and good hydration makes. 

The next photo checkpoint was the Mt Eden trig, and there taking in the view was the Ashburton TA team again. They’d been riding just slightly ahead of me for most of TA, and yo yo-ing back and forth at each rest stop.

I couldn’t get my GPS to follow through tracking file. Cam, Bryan and Tony led me across Auckland and out the South, then a local cyclist named Blair joined us and made sure I made it safely out onto the backroads to Clevedon.