After breakfast Trudy, Marion, Steve and I set off together at 7am. It was a really nice ride out of the forest and through the back roads to Dargaville. The weather was settled and the roads quiet. We came across three kids who were offering water and fruit for TA riders, and this made a natural gathering point as everyone spent a bit of time there. The kids were very friendly. I thought they should be in school but someone pointed out that they might be homeschooled so I guess we provided a lesson of sorts although I’m not quite sure what they would have learned from me; how to smell bad perhaps.
On the way to Dargaville
In Dargaville we went to the bike shop where Steve enquired about a new bottom bracket and I enquired about new brake pads, but they couldn’t help us. I got some gas from Hunting & Fishing and the four of us had lunch at a cafe and restocked at the supermarket.
Out of Dargaville we called into Ernie’s Kumara Box which is a kind of kumara emporium/museum. It was closed but Ernie was there and enthusiastically gave us a free tour of the museum. Surprisingly it didn’t feature kumara, but had all manner of things that had washed up on the local beaches over the years including an Antarctic leopard seal. How it ended up in Northland is hard to fathom (excuse the pun).
Ernie's Kumara Box
The next stop was Te Kopuru; a town that has some significance for me as my grandma was born there. I hasten to add it probably had little significance for her as she left when still an baby and she said she had no memory of it. My family and I briefly visited Te Kopuru with her some years ago. It was the first time she’d been back after 90 odd years.
The road from here out to Pouto Point was gruelling. To set the tone just south of town there was a large irrigator spreading effluent on a roadside field. Of course it was upwind of the road and we got a nice drizzle of shit as we went past. In some places the road was excellent because logging trucks had packed it as hard as asphalt, but in others there was loose chunky gravel on top which became a bit of a nightmare combined with steeply cambered corners.
This was the hardest day so far for me as I was still tired from the previous two days. When I’m close to empty my normal reserve of energy set aside to control my emotions is diverted to other bits of the body. So at one point near the end as the road and my condition worsened I started giggling uncontrollably. Better than crying I guess.
We stayed at the Pouto Point Marine Hall with about a dozen other TA riders. There was camping outside and so I pitched my tent, but it was soaking from dew in the morning so I opted to sleep on the floor inside. Either way it was a lovely spot.
