Helensville to Auckland.
Daily total: 42.81km Running total: 452.3km
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| Auckland in the distance. |
Considering the intensity of the previous day, the body was reacting pretty well to being back on the bike. Much prefer the hills to 90 Mile Beach. The beach was hard as the scenery did not vary too much whereas hills, the scenery changes. There is the chance to escape the head winds.
Within 20km of Auckland 8 of my gears decide to give out. Another thing to add to the list of things I need to complete once I hit Auckland.
Lunch was spent outside of a bakery with the Ozzies. If it were not for the bikes, we would have easily been mistaken as vagrants. We parted ways in west Auckland. Now it is time to catch up with the digital, internet based side of Bluffing It.
Day 8. The boat to Helensville.
Trounson Campground to Helensville.
Daily total: 115.39km Running total: 409.49km
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| The view on the way to Dargaville. |
As always, plans change. A degree of flexibility is required. The plan was the internet catch up and regain phone coverage in Dargaville then along the Missing Link to Purto the next day to get a ride on a fishing boat.
The boat and catch up with the Ozzies from the day before required phone coverage. Phone coverage that I have not had for days. In theory Dargaville was to provide this. In reality, my phone decided to reject any form of network coverage. Trying to make a phone call was an exercise in futility. Numerous Sims were tried. Payphones sought. Payphones found. Payphones that did not do cash. Payphones that took phone cards. Shops sell phone cards. But not the first one I went into. Why would it sell phone cards, despite the phone box sitting right by it's front door? Shop two-no phone cards. Try shop three. No success. Shop 3 said to try shop 2. I informed shop 3 that shop 2 sent me them. I asked how people make phone calls using the public phones...with a phone card was the answer...where do I get a phone card?...don't know. Arg. Surrounded by phones with no way of using them. If ET could use a bloody speak and spell to contact space, surely there would be a chance for me. Just one phone call. A phone call that required a new Sim and top up. A $26 phone call. $26 and 3 hours of my time to make one call to someone who turned out to be one minute down the road.
I caught up with the Ozzies. Turns out there was a chance of getting the boat that day.
So I joined them and headed towards Purto, to be closer to the fishing boat. We get a call around 3.30pm confirming that we could catch the ferry that day around 6.30pm. That gave us 3 hours to cover about 35km. If we missed the boat, it would be a days wait until the next boat. Time would be tight. The terrain went crazy. Hills that went on forever that were followed by very short down hill sections before hitting more up, steep hill. Then to make things more fun, the smooth tarmac for the last 25km was replaced with unsealed gravel roads. With bonus hills thrown in for shits and giggles. Big, gravelly, hilly roads. The whole way to the end of the peninsular. I have never ridden so hard or for so long or with such intensity for so long in my whole life. I was getting weaker with every up hill that passed. Coming off the bike on the downhills at those speeds would have been bone producing. We get to the beach a little late. No boat. Theres a message, the boat will be a bit late. Boom. Happy days.
The boat does the boat equivalent of 'pulling up'. We are greeted by Rod, the captain of the boat, with his magnificent seafarers beard. We are loaded on to the boat and treated to the most amazing cup of tea ever. The race to the boat was brutal. I was destroyed. We sailed across the Kaipara Habour. The largest natural harbour in the Southern hemisphere.
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| Sun set over the harbour. |
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| View from the boat. |
Rod and his wife Shelly were amazing. They feed us dinner, put us up for the night. If you are ever doing the Missing Link yourselves or want to charter a fishing boat, give these guys a call, they are great people. Shamrock Charters Kaipara Ph: 09 420 7061 or Mob: 027 568 2447. Seriously, they are boss.
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