Days 3 & 4 - Hard graft!

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Day 3 - Otorohanga to Urenui 160km

After 2 relatively easy days to start the cycle, day 3 would prove to be a lot different. We were to cycle just over 160km, including 3 steady climbs to over 200m with many smaller hills in between. To sum it up, it was an absolute killer on the legs, and by this time our bums had also started to get a little tender. We left Otorohanga at half 7 in the morning, and whilst we were lucky enough that there was still little wind it rained for the first few hours. Following a short stop for breakfast number 2, our bike repair skills were called into action for the first time when my back tyre suffered a puncture. This put us behind schedule by about half an hour, and we began to get slightly worried about time as the hills were taking a lot more effort than we previously expected. Our attempt to catch up wasnt helped by the fact that i was having continuous problems with my chain falling off, we discovered later that this was because we made a bit of a mess putting the back tyre on after the puncture. But although exhausted, we arrived in Urenui at about 6pm with only half an hour to spare before it got dark. We both agreed that it had been quite easily the toughest physical challenge we had ever experienced, and this was backed up by the fact we were both in our beds by half past 8!!!

Day 4 - Urenui to Patea 116km

Another half 7 start today, with much sorer legs however! We tackled the first 35km which was pretty flat at a very moderate pace. Todays route involved one of the highest climbs of the cycle going up to 400m over around 10km, as the road took us close to Mt Egmont (2500m). This was obviously a slog given the distance we had covered on day 3, but we had been fortunate enough to catch all the premiership goals on the tv the previous night so we had plenty to talk about to keep our mind of the legs! Again we couldnt have asked for better weather with no wind or rain, and the scenery was equally pleasant, with Mt Egmont rising above what little clouds there were to our right hand side for the latter part of the day. We arrived in our original target destination for day 4 Hawera at around 1:30pm, and with time to spare we have decided to crack another 30km to Patea to try and eat into tomorrows distance.

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Photos

Puncture number 1!
I make a bad attempt to fix our 1st puncture.

Having a break
Bez props himself up on a break near the end of day 3

Mt Egmont.
Mt Egmont towers above the clouds. Aint she a beaut!!!

Keep going!
Me working hard to get to the top of one of the smaller climbs on Day 4 - Im putting on that face by the way.