This ride was an easy one, the flattest leg for my whole trip, so there’s not much material for an interesting post. It’s okay though, tomorrow’s ride was going to be brutal, so a breezy ride adds some variety to my journey.

I rode in almost a straight line and kept an even pace, the only tricky part was when it rained. The rain didn’t last long but by the 60km mark, anything not underneath my raincoat was saturated. 10km after that the sun came and everything looked much better and I stopped for some treats.

The sunshine was short lived, so the next hour was just on and off rain. In the last 5km I came across a blissfully smooth cycle path. To most people that wouldn’t be exciting, but to me, it was such a delightful gift. Not to be rude, but cycling on bumpy roads and gravel over the past few days punished my butt, so I was happy to have a break.

After gliding into town, I made it to my hostel, where I appeared to be the only guest. I rugged up on the couch in front of the fire, watched a nature doco and tried to eat as many of my snacks as possible. Tomorrow’s ride would be 120km, so I didn’t want to be weighed down by unnecessary oreos or milky ways. I fell asleep feeling both scared and excited about riding into Auckland.