Day 6 - January 16, 2023

Day 6:  Parakai - Flat Bush, Auckland

We're not in the far north any more!  But suddenly in the centre of NZ's largest, busiest, and traffic craziest city.  Thanks to Auckland Transport for the convenient cycle routes for getting us there alive! 

As the notes say - we're not in rural NZ anymore!  The first part of the day was scenery quite similar to yesterday - rural rolling hills.  Stunningly gorgeous, actually.  But - Bruce had encouraged us to ride in groups today to better navigate the challenges of finding our way through Auckland.  That didn't last too long for me as I find I ride at a different rhythm than many of the riders in our group.  I'm slower on the flats and downhills, but sometimes (when I'm not walking) a bit faster on the uphills.  So the faster riders would pass on the flats/downhills and then I would have to apply my brakes going uphill. Another reason why group riding is not for me; I was much happier to ride on my own.  Also - not much opportunity to stop for photos when I'm riding in a group.  

Here's a pic of us getting ready to leave our hotel this morning.

    

As we got closer to the city, traffic increased, as did the turns we had to make.  We had to keep a keen eye on navigation, as the cue sheet listed a total of 90 turns.  Yikes!  We went from rural country roads to bike lanes, to bike paths, to city streets, and everything in between.  I was happy to be on my own and not have to worry about whole groups getting through traffic lights, etc.  It seemed that every time there was a navigational challenge I would meet up with Wendy and Justin who were having the same challenge.  Justin started calling me the "ghost rider".  The most interesting routing of the day was through a huge park & ride lot at the airport where we had to wait for cars entering/exiting from the other direction to activate the gate and lift arms to let us through.  We didn't get very close to the city centre, although I did take this picture of it from a distance.

Some interesting street names......

We rode through the beautiful Cornwall Park.

The city seems to have done a good job with their cycle routes and there seemed to be lots of riders out and about today.  Nice cycle bridge that we encountered later on in the day.

We're staying the night in a far southeast suburb called Flat Bush.  We're in two rather large houses - our has seven bedrooms and the other is about the same size.  An interesting option for accommodation.  A few of us arrived well before the van and trailer so we found a coffee shop to refuel ourselves a bit.  Still no van about an hour and half later.  They had a busy day getting a replacement wheel for the e-tandem and then shuttling the bike out to Colin & Jane who were making do with individual bikes in the interim.  We couldn't check-in to the houses yet because the tour company had not paid the invoice when it was due last week.  Oh well - it was all resolved in time.  And the then the highlight of the day for me - Cher (from Southern Tier 2013) and her husband Dave retrieved me and took me for dinner.  It was great to catch up with her - and - she baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies for us!  Thank you, Cher and Dave.  See you on the Clarence!

Stats for the day:  

Distance:  88.22 km

Elevation (Garmin):  3744' up, 3589' down

Elevation (RWGPS):  didn't save properly

Weather:  Fine.  17C - 24C, but a pesky headwind out of the east at times.