The internet is a luxury.

Posts about the progress of the journey will be a bit haphazard in terms of chronological order.  Access to the internet can be a bit patchy and at times expensive, also, I get horrific phone coverage.  So not always easy to check in to say that I have not been eaten by a swarm of stray sheep.  To counter this, I have a book and a plastic thing that writes to record what I have been up to.  It also explains why you are reading about the beginning of the journey, 4 days after I set off.  It is a bit like a time capsule.  Sort of.  


Day 1.  Easy beginnings.  
Cape Reinga to Tapotupotu 
Daily total: 6.06km Running total: 6.06km

Started the day after a terrible nights sleep and an early bus to catch (7.15am!).  To make it worse, there was no coffee to be found and my phone had been out of reception for a good half day.  A good start.  Starting off with no communication to the outside world in a quiet part of the country. 

I was expecting a straight up bus trip to the starting point at Cape Reinga.  That was not the case.  We visited a $1million walkway specifically built for the Queen's visit at some point in the past.  Turns out she took a few steps on it and then buggered off.  Some good PR work there Queen.  Then some countryside, then drove down 90 mile beach (interesting fact, it is not 90 miles long. It is shorter than that and no one has any idea to where the name came from).  Then a stop to go sand boarding (like sledging, but on gurt sand dunes).  I was not going to go in a bid to save my legs for the bike (running up dunes is hard) but I could not resist sliding down those glorious yellow dunes...twice.  Good way not to tire myself out.  

Sand dunes aside, the plan for the day radically altered.  Initially, it was going to be the lift up to Cape Reinga and then a long burn down to 90 Mile Beach to the first stop off point in Ahipara.  By the time I was ready to set off it was 3pm, so a pretty ambitious plan.  So decided to camp at the closest camp ground...a whole 6km away! Serious distance covered for the first day! Get me...the next 2089km will be a breeze. Sorry, 2083km!

That is me. This is what I look like. I like to squeeze the disappointment in early. There I am holding my over laden bike in front just near the start of Cape Reinga. Again, a massive thank you to Awesomenz for the free bus ride up to Cape Reinga. It made the start of the journey so much easier.

To the left is me at the very starting point of the whole journey, as well as the first time I tried riding the bike with all the gear properly attached. It seems a nice start, but out of shot to the right is a big hill.  A big hill that reaches for the sky. Got to hit the ground running. I made it and managed to build upon the ache acquired from running up over massive sand dunes...