I did not blow away

Now that was a night to remember, I knew there was a big front coming my way but I did not quite expect it to be this big. I turns out that Auckland had it a bit worse than me.

I was amazed that I went to sleep quite well despite the noise of both the big sea and the rain that by nine last night was already lashing the tent. I did though and I slept soundly till approximately 4 in the morning when the noise of the rocking tent become just a bit too much. I knew this was coming so I put a bit extra care in pegging the tent last night and therefore I was not worried about the tent flying away however I was a bit concerned about water coming in. I doze back a bit but in the end I was awake so I read and read while I was waiting for the rain to stop or at least slow down.

By the time I got out of the tent it was 9:45 and there were indeed a few signs of leakage but nothing major. I  packed up and took a few pictures, I guess I was procrastinating as the thought of the dirt road climb was a very unappealing. In the end it only took 30 minutes to do the 2 miles to the tarmac.

By the time I got to the top the wind had eased a bit and the rain had completely stopped, there was even a hint of blue sky. From there on things got rapidly better.

The route back from Cape Reinga was the same as the route up but in reverse. The only radical difference was that the wind this time was pushing me rather than stopping me. That made a hell of a difference.

This means that it all went fairly quickly which was just as well as, if it was difficult to find interesting things to look at yesterday, it was just impossible today looking at things for the second time.

I had decided early on that I was going to aim for the backpacker in Pukenui, partly as the tent was drenched and I did not want to risk another wet night in it, partly as I was hoping they had a book exchange policy and I could exchange Michael Crichton’s State of Fear that I had the time to finish in the 4 hours of reading between last night, no internet connection, and this morning, rained in.

Getting to Pukenui also sets me up well for tomorrow with an easy 40 miles to Aiphara that will take in the bottom part of 90 miles beach with the prospect of some beach riding.

After I did some chores, including getting the camping gear out to dry, I went to the shop across the road to get some supplies for the next two days or so and so it happens that they had a meat counter. Well, let’s just say that I have had my fill of proteins for the day and also made up for the rather poor lunch.