The endless beach.

Day 2.  Short lived easy beginnings.  
Tapotupotu to Waipapakauri
Daily total: 92.43km Running total: 98.49km
Top speed record set: 63.3kmph 

The view that greeted me at the start of the day at Tapotupotu. Rubbish.

Why did I run up the massive sand dune twice to go sand boarding? Why did I go for a big walk at the campsite? Why was it so difficult for me to just sit about and enjoy the sun and watch the sea? Why? Why? No point worrying, as there was a whole days worth of cycling to be had.

Anyways, today was to day for the 90 Mile Beach rematch. It had been nearly a year since I was last there. It was not a success.

Last year. The antithesis of success.

Today the beach was to be conquered. At low tide, 90 Mile Beach is a highway that follows the rules of the road. Theoretically, you can get fined for not wearing a bicycle helmet (turns out the helmet proved to be a good sun visor...I digress). Despite being called 90 Mile Beach, it is not 90 miles long. it is around 56 miles. No one seems to know how the beach got it's name. Its long and has flat compacted sand which makes it suitable to drive on. Providing that you have a suitable vehicle for the job. Which a bicycle is, sort of but not when compared to a 4X4.  

Danger. Slow is bad. Speed up.

The day was hot and was getting hotter. It was going to be a long ride. I presumed that is was going to be an easy ride, no hills, flat straight surface. Just sunshine and tunes. I spent the entirety of the beach cycling against a head wind. The shadeless beach with the sun beating down continuously. You look ahead in to the distance and everything just disappears into some hazy mass. There was no point of reference to head to in the distance. Just haze. You catch up to the haze, only to be met by more haze. At points I swore I was just cycling within some giant circle, as sand backs to the left seemed to repeat themselves every km or so. Gap in the dune. Stream. Open topped dunes. Tree covered dunes. Repeat. All top with glorious long white fluffy clouds. Repeating their fluffy ways down the length of the beach. It was a proper test. It break up the journey, I would just close my eyes and just keep cycling. 

Wild horses on the beach.

I nearly missed a group of wild horses being all horse like and wild on the beach. I was too busy taking the first of what I will coin 'bikies' because there are just not enough pointless words cluttering up the English language. This will be my legacy to the world! Although I did start thinking about all the things we do not notice in everyday life. How many crazy things go on in life that we just don't notice because we are absorbed by something else or just looking in the wrong direction?

"Bikie" a potentially annoying word.

I am almost certain that I saw my first penguin in the wild. I think. I cannot be sure. It was laying face down in the sand and covered in flies. Decided to not to investigate too much as it was a bit depressing as I have always wanted to see penguins in the wild. It is not how I imagined how my first time would be like.

It was a hard days worth of cycling, with the last 20km being particularly hard. At this point my leg kept cramping up, the sun was setting and the tide was advancing. I had thought about that story about the king who tried controlling the sea by throwing stones or something at the sea and shouting at it to go back to whether it came from. Bloody sea coming to our shores with your lunar cycles. There were no stones for me, just washed up jelly fish. Not as effective as stones. So I just glared at the sea. My feet got wet. 

As the sea advanced, the further towards the coastline I got pushed. The closer to the coastline I got, the greater the distance was for me to get to the turn off. Which lead to more time on the beach and the greater chance of having to camp out in the dunes. I made it to the camp site not long before the darkness of night began setting in. For what was meant to be an easy day turned into a very testing day. Both physically and mentally. I succeeded but I was feeling destroyed from the trip and mentally numbed. What have I committed myself to?

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