Wellington to Auckland, end of the ride

Well we made it! The last two days were sunny and warm with green rolling hills, lots of sheep and cows, rivers, and some short steep climbs. We've ended up with a consistent group of 10 or so that work together really well as a peleton. For about 40 km we even had a "carousel" going with two lines going, fast on the right and slow on the left and rotating rapidly so that you're only in the lead for about 15 seconds. We were moving along at 24-25 mph and it was almost effortless! Great team of riders and a real sense of comraderie. One stage was 94 km from Tokaroa to Hamilton, and the next day was two stages 67 km Hamilton to Glen Murray and 38 km Glen Murray to Pukekohe (just outside Auckland).

I've been amazed by some of the older riders, there are a number of riders 60-69 that are in incredible shape, and one over 70 that was trying to chase down a breakaway when they broke from our peleton (and a 62 year old guy was in the breakaway)!

It was also fun to have a local television celebrity with our group as well as an ex All Black rugby captain who played rugby in the 1960's for New Zealand. Every night we were on television thanks to the television guy and that was fun as well. He was racing for a charity that sends disabled athletes to the NYC marathon. They were raising money to send an athlete who lost both his legs in the Christchurch earthquake. The newscaster got several people to donate $2000 in exchange for him shaving his legs and it all went to this charity.

All in all a great ride/race. If anyone enjoys biking and would like to visit New Zealand, I would highly recommend this ride or one of the other rides these guys put on. They're Dynamo Events and they do this ride, one in Northlands (4 days) and one on the South Island.

Thanks for following this, will post some pictures soon.