We woke up with good intentions of making good progress and arriving in the afternoon as opposed to the late ones we had had recently. Food was running low so we went into the town centre to stock up, Alice was fine with PB sandwiches for breakfast but I wanted a fry up so we headed off to a cafe where I had a full fried and pancakes, resulting in me feeling ill for the first 3 hours of the ride.
We knew the ride was going to be a long slog, we have rode through most of the best scenery on our route on the north island and now it was a case of getting down to Wellington where we can have our much needed day off. We ate up the distance in the morning and stopped for lunch around 1.30, only about 55km left to go.
Obviously Alice and me being who we are we had way too long for our lunch break meaning when we got back on the bike we had lost all momentum and felt really stiff. We both agreed our legs were feeling the last few days and even the shorter hills were causing us to pour with sweat.
The afternoon went slowly, it was hot and sweaty cycling with not a lot of wind or any scenery to take our minds off the ride. I had been having some issues with my bike as well which just added to the experience, there's no lying when I say i was glad to finish the ride and have a beer just before getting to the campsite. We both know the next few days are probably going to be much of the same.
