DAY 1 – Cape Reinga to Herekino

DAY 1 – Cape Reinga to Herekino – 120KMS / 6.5 hours / 21k average

Shuttling from Auckland to cape Reinga via the “Burton Bus” was achieved the day before wave 2. After camping the night we did a 2PM mass start in baking temperatures from the lighthouse carpark. Everyone was very very exciting and a number of people looked pretty tired even before they had started (Likely due to having ridden to the start from quite a way away).

The first bit of drama was descending down to 90 mile beach and a water bottle fell out of my modified water bottle holders and promptly cracked meaning I just lost valuable water which was required for the beach. My jandals fell of 1 minute later. After securing the load better I hit the beach and joined up with a bunch of other TA riders and we rode down the beach in a V formation (like birds) to shelter from the swirling cross and head winds.

The beach was the hardest bit of the ride so far. Yes it’s flat but very exposed, and very monotonous and it was 4+ hours of battling the wind and blowing sand as we did the 80k to the get out point. For many riders this could be the hardest section of the whole ride and it’s right at the beginning. I was pretty shaky once I got off the beach but much better than others who reportedly fell off their bikes and couldn’t move!

I ran out of water with an hour of beach to go but miraculously spotted a fisherman who was happy to give me some water!!!

I met another fellow TA cyclist (Stu) and he told me he was going to stay at the school over the hill from Ahipara. I met him there in the late dusk and we slept out on the classroom deck and jumped the locked gate to clean ourselves in the school pool. This was gold and Stu was a godsend since I had really no idea where I was going to stay but I knew I wanted to not camp alone in the far north! It’s pretty dicey up there and I was surprised the caretaker didn’t come and pull a gun on us. The other good thing about staying there was that there was a thick fog in the morning and since we didn’t need to setup our tents they were not we unlike all the other TA riders who camped down the road.