BLUFF TO CAPE REINGA: Day 16 Dargaville to Omapere ..89km

Welcome back Bloggers.........Last nite the Team stayed out at Bayleys Beach Campground.A mere 12 k out of Dargaville......this wouldn’t have been a problem under normal circumstances.. But we had already ridden181k to Dargaville(1st stage end of Northland Tour) & in all reality that was ENOUGH!?..;the extra kms to our nites accommodation, into a westerly head-wind & somewhat surprisingly uphill was not exactly appreciated. Anyway, I appeased myself later ,(before a gorgeous lasagne dinner), with a gentle stroll down to the beautiful, windswept vista of a Bayleys Beach sunset!..simply stunning & a glorious way to end a massive day of riding!......But I digress viewers!!.........onto todays stage....
We rolled out @ 07.30 to enable us to get a bit ahead of the Nth Tour race. About 20 k in, the first group of elites passed us. We cheered on the respective sons, then carried on up the first BIG climb of the day to await the arrival/passing of the GROUP 2 peleton. Kate(the daughter of our early departed Sth. Is. buddy Geoff) was driving the bunch(or certainly assisting!)Her outstanding riding keeping her firmly owning the female ’maillot jaune’.We congratulated her from the safety of the sideline then trucked on toward OPONONI. The 12km climb up through the Waipoua Forest (avg. gradient 5%) was cool & spectacular. We had arranged to meet the support ‘girls’ at the Coffee caravan at the road-side stop of the famous ‘Tane Mahuta’(2,000 year old Kauri tree)...When we arrived I figured it wasn’t worth riding all this way & not STOP and walk the short 5 min. path to view such a wonderful Kiwi natural icon. Unfortunately, only the hardy;(Kim & Ruth,Tod & Ange)made the arduous trek..but boy was it worth it! ..an awe-inspiring speciman.! Those who didn’t come ,missed out. We sat & gazed at the behemoth & contemplated ‘the-meaning-of-life’ for about 10mins , then back to the road.I downed a large chocolate icecream,3 Afghan biscuits & half a litre of water ,whilst Steve had an instant coffee.
For the next ½ hour, we chased down our lone leader ‘Surge’(who had taken a sneaky runner whilst we graised) . We finally caught him just before the nasty Opononi hill-climb(gradient 16%!!), thanks to the stellar efforts of us three & our ‘guest’rider Tom(who had selflessly given up his overall ‘G.C.’ chances to help his old man into town!)..Thanks & well done Tom.....don’t think we don’t appreciate it.
One last call for a photo opportunity at the top of the hill(WHAT A VIEW!!) & a rapid descent down to our nites accommodation. We narrowly, (make that ‘Surge’),narrowly avoided a nasty accident as we turned into the bach driveway.....one of the Nth. Tour riders tried to turn & stop with us ,obviously only semi-conscious after his days efforts, and befuddled as to the whereabouts of the true finish line(2ks further up the road)..Some tricky curb-hopping on Pageys part avoided an imminent hospital entrance exam!.......This would have been our FIRST on-road incident/accident!(touch wood!)
So...all up, another great day in the saddle....Tomorrow off to Kaitaia,via the Rawene Ferry....nite nite.......Toddy x
p.s. ‘ Surges’ road-kill count 8... one lane bridges 4..........