Life's a beach...

...and so you ride! 
Cape Reinga lighthouse to Hukatere Lodge
74.5km
Hubris? Overconfidence definitely, but I think hubris is too strong. Arrived at Cape Reinga car park bang on time just before 9, time to unload the bikes, sort out the car for the unplanned additional backload to Wellington, then stroll down (and down, and down!) to the lighthouse and the obligatory photos of it, with and without grinning idiots (hi Jeannie & Merv 😉) and the signpost. Disappointingly Wellington is not on the list: hope we remember which way to go! We'd already 'enjoyed' the preview of what was in store for us on the road, before the turnoff to Te Paki stream; suffice to say there are a couple of long & draining climbs to get the blood pumping. The ride along, across, through and down the stream was further than I expected. The reward at the beach was morning tea and the last of Marg's wonderful date loaf.
So much has been written about the famously-misnamed 90 Mile Beach that there's probably nothing I can add. But it's my blog so I'm going to write about it anyway. Sandy comes to mind, as does flat, as does boring... But most of all WINDY. Naively I had thought that cycling 50km on the dead flat would be a bit of a doddle. No hills? Bring it on... But of course if you don't ride uphill, you can't freewheel down. You just have to pedal. And pedal. And pedal... And did I mention that's boring?
I'd been checking Windy.com daily for the 10 days up to today, and frustratingly the picture never really changed much. After a week of consistent Nor-Westerlies it was changing on Saturday to the South. So stiff Sou'Easters it was. It was just a constant grind, down to 7kph in the (frequent) gusts, maybe 10-11kph when the wind dropped. And we had to average 12 to be off the beach 4 hours after low tide. Huge respect to the bikers who do the full 80km in one tide. 
So double stressors: would we make it to Hukatere Lodge with rideable beach; and would the batteries hold out. We were being as conservative as possible in Eco mode, but it was still touch and go... By the time we were within cooee of the lodge, nerves were somewhat frayed. Exacerbated when Marg had two occurrences of cramp and we could not find the magnesium tablets. Last seen on the kitchen bench at home, and no doubt still there... Made worse on the second when I didn't realise she'd stopped and carried blithely on, just wishing to reach the end and get my bum off the bloody bike. Needless to say, words were had... One saving grace of the grind down the beach was Merv's suggestion of stopping every 5km for 2 minutes. It gave us something to focus on in the tedium of riding the beach. I think it saved our marriage. It certainly saved our butts! 
Did I mention that Windy.com predicted the wind would veer South and drop from about noon? Shame it waited until 3:15... The last couple of hours, cramp notwithstanding, were at least a little easier. Roll on more of the same tomorrow!
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