After a good nights sleep and Bevan insisting we had a selfie together, we cycled to a nearby cafe and loaded on the calories wtih a big breakfast. Our arms were already looking pretty red and with the temperature feeling toastie, we piled on the factor 50 and began the 78k route.
Unfortunately, we had to spend 31km on a highway with limited shade. Here, we cycled our first hill of the trip, which proved to be tough in the heat. It was made more enjoyable and passing cars hooted, waved and jeered. Although there was still a fair few looks of, what are these idiots doing. As we got to the final brow of the hill (too many brows for one hill) we realised we had run out of water so we ensured we didn't take the next 10km down the hill too slowly. As we got closer to Rotorua we started to get the occasional whiff off the lovely sulphur. Once in town we shot off to eat some very reasonable sushi, a can of coke and some much needed for water. At the till, a woman mentioned she had seen us earlier going up the hill and thought we were crazy for planning to go all the way to Queenstown but we got 'game'.
Our total elevations was 860m and we both agreed we were ready for more! We ended our day with a pint in town and an early night in our tent, breathing in pockets of smelly sulphur.... or that could have just been Tom.
