What a great way to finish up with the North Island! I’ll be honest I was somewhat feeling I just wanted to get to the South Island so had veered off the Tour route and headed for Wellington on the shortest route possible. I think when cycle touring, some days are just spent getting from A to B and yesterday and today were supposed to be much like that.
Despite that yesterday proved to be quite fun and the roads (a good 50% of which were totally deserted) allowed me to somewhat open up, covering the 107km in under 5h. My reward? A hot tub and a bottle of wine.
Today however I got about 40km in when I had a bit of a change of heart and veered off my planned route and headed up into the hills, with Google coming up trumps this time.
I sat for a long time weighing up whether I could be bothered. It was an extra 500m of ascent and added 15km to a 100km ride, the weather at the top of the hill looked miserable and I was pretty content just smashing it alongside the highway. I decided though that it would make for some pretty crap reading so I took a left and hit the gas for a few km so that I wouldn’t change my mind.
It was absolutely epic. The road pretty much just went straight up for about 15k but it was a beautiful mountain road, smooth, narrow and full of hairpins, and crucially without a car on it. I even saw a full on wild mountain goat who seemed as surprised to see me as I was it. The rain did come down, the first I’ve had all trip, but was weirdly refreshing and on reaching the top the clouds parted and the sun came out.
The 15km up were followed by 30km of descent, at which point I found a dedicated cycle route that covered the 35km all the way into Wellington. Result!
Couldn’t have planned it better had I tried. A celebratory beer, some Ramen and a quick wander around Wellington was enough for me to and so tomorrow I take the boat to Picton!
I have to say the north has been very kind and aside from the bees and the spokes it’s been a quality adventure so far, and actually the spokes breaking has never really caused any issues other than a few lost km on the bike, replaced by quite fun rides with locals who find the whole thing very entertaining.
I’ve now done 1358.5km in 13 days of cycling and because I haven’t done the full Tour route I’m actually now over half way, which feels pretty good. Highlights for me so far have been: the start at Cape Reinga, the magical morning at Omapere (on the longest day), sitting eating cliff bars at Kawakawa bay, the Taupo sky dive, the Tongariro crossing, the Timber Trail and today’s climb up Akatarawa Hill Road. Bring on the South Island!
Bish on a Bike 
Always great to read about your adventures. Enjoy South Island! Mx
It’s great you are taking a flexible view of your cycle route and can and do take off on diversions, which so far seem to have been well worth while doing. I enjoyed the mountain goat story. Have fun in the South Island. All good here – except the BREXIT cr__. I am fed up with the Brexiteers saying “we have to respect the will of the people” when any one with any sense would put this back to the people to decide, now we all know the situation. There is NO WAY people knew what they were voting for 2.5 years ago. Love Dad
Here here Mr Bishop!