The morning starts off cloudy and appropriately enough, it drizzles/mists for our first hour of riding, and it’s warm and humid, too. Our ride starts through some hills, but generally trends downhill We see tons of cyclists – singly, in small or large clubs doing their hill-training. I have to admit I was slightly envious of their sleek, big-wheeled road machines.
We reached Kawakawa Bay in less than an hour and since the weather was still pretty dreary, there was no inclination to stop. So we continued on and stopped at a cutesy cafe in Clevedon for a “snack”. Carole shared her slice of lemon cake, but I devoured a huge slice of delicious carrot cake and Martel ate a BLAT burger. The burger was piled so high with toppings, he had to squish it slightly to fit it into his mouth. At Clevedon, Martel left us since the van could not go on the ferry.
After that, we made pretty quick time since we saw that we might be able to make the 11:30 ferry.
However, I was in the lead (since I was the only one flying out that night and had the most motivation to make the earliest ferry), and missed the last crucial turn-off. The other women caught up with me, but Eric had taken a slight detour to visit with some friends. When we stopped to ask for directions, we found out that the ferry no longer ran on the weekends.
We did find our way to Pine Harbour and shortly thereafter, Eric showed up. At which point, we called in the calvary – Martel. Martel was already in Auckland, but had to navigate back to Pine Harbour. While waiting for Martel, I started taking all the accessories off my bike so that it could be folded if necessary.
Once he got there, we managed to fit 3 bikes in the back of the van and the other 2 on the bike rack. Then it was a comfy 40-min drive to the Auckland International Hostel. Once there, we unpacked the van and then Eric headed to the storage locker to retrieve our suitcases, bike boxes, etc. Whilst Jenni went to meet her husband, Fran, Carole and Martel checked into the hostel for the night.
Since it was just me packing up, Eric had cancelled rental of the rec room in the hostel basement and I just packed my bike outside with helpful(?) directions from passersby. It probably took over an hour, but I did squeeze some other stuff in without going over the weight limit. Thank goodness the hostel has a scale!
I was so busy packing the bike, I didn't get a chance to say a proper goodbye to Fran or Jenni (or meet Tom, either)! I did manage a quick goodbye with Carole and Martel.
Just enough time to shower and then headed out to the airport just after 5pm, Eric driving. There were 2 reasons for the trip: to drop me off and to drop off the blue cooler since Nancy had upgraded her seat and was now allowed 2 check-in bags. Nancy and I were headed to Vancouver on the same flight.
In hindsight, it was probably better that the last few hours were, at least for me, so hectic. It didn't hit me until I was on the plane that I was really leaving: not just New Zealand, but the rest of the Fellowship.
So to all, many thanks and harere ra.
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