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Published: August 8th 2007
It turns out that most of my blogs have been deleted by some travelblog server corruption or something like that. I am not alone though, apparently another 45,000 blogs have also been deleted. Nevermind anyway. Now only my 1st two blogs survive and then anything post travelblog apocolypto.
A relatively good start to the cycle ride only curtailed by a few teething problems on the first day namely two flat tyres. It turned out that on the 1st day I ended up walking 20km and cycling only 10km!
The 1st stop off was paihia and even though my bike had been giving me a bit of gip I was in relatively high spirits. It was good to be finally moving on from kerikeri even though it had served me well for the last however many months. Although even if spirits had been low Paihia would have been a good place to stop. I can’t say its spectacular but it does the job. Agreeable weather and all the other gubbins. Anyhow I was forced to spend another day in Paihia as I needed to get my hands on a few inner tubes as one of mine has been completely obliterated
by a rogue piece of glass. I wasn’t able to get my hands on the right size one but I did manage to force a larger one inside the tyre so the job is a relative goodun. It does have to said though that the wheel looks a bit shaky at times. I think this is because parts of the inner tube are squashed into certain parts of the tyre destroying the equilibrium, hazard a guess ha-ha. I have noticed that when I reach high speeds the wheels gets especially shaky. Been the good rider that I am though I try not to look at this minor defect.
a. Because I am a conscientious cyclist and I like to keep my eyes on the road at all times
b. I assumed my bike was a beast when I bought it and I don’t want anything that might dissuade from this point
c. I don’t want to spend hard earned buccaneers on my bike if at all possible
Moving on from the technical glitches the trip has drifted along nicely. Although I cant quite motivate myself to cycle 100km a day just yet. However as the weather is so
unpredictable in NZ I often find myself cycling 60 or so km and then finding the 1st available place to stop off. The other night the 1st available place to stop off was Sheep world. That night the rains hit really hard and I ended up sleeping in the owners lounge as the bit where my dwarf tent was had flooded.
Currently I am in Auckland having a day or two off and getting myself dry. On Thursday or Friday I plan to catch a ferry from Auckland to the coromandel peninsula and cycle down the east coast of the north island. All great plans are open to change though.
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1st day blues with the leopard 
anonymous
non-member comment
your ride sounds sweet, jami-boi. hope you're getting fit, and you're cleaning out your over-ranfurlied body!!!! wish u heaps and heaps of downhill. peace out, nuff respect, true love, mount zion, 66 rules and more stuff.....rémi