When people participate in the official Aotearoa Tour, they use a charter ferry to cross Kaipara Harbour. I, of course, didn’t have that luxury and had to cycle around. It involves one extra day of pedaling. Oh, well!
Just to prove I was wrong yesterday, right out of Dargaville, there was a 38km stretch of “mostly flat” road. Of course, with that came boring farmland paysage but hey, I ain’t complaining. I am trying to keep a promise to myself not to stretch my abilities and was cycling almost at a leisurely pace. It was also a relatively short ride.
I was not in a hurry so I stopped at the Kauri Museum, halfway through the ride. The museum is seemingly dedicated to the destruction of Kauri forest, showing how it was cut with all sorts of machinery on display. It cost me the equivalent of a night in a hostel, it wasn’t worth it.
I arrived in Kaiwaka around 2pm, set up my tent on a farm and call it a day.
Today in numbers:
85 km – distance cycled
1642 – year Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand