Day 1 - Jupiter Rising
Saturday - March 2nd, 2024
Cape Reinga - Ahipara
103.4 Kilometers
Arrived at Cape Reinga at 05:29 after leaving Beachcombers Hostel in Kaitaia at 03:01 in a taxi shuttle provided by a manic delusional Kiwi. Who claimed to live a life directly out of a Mission Impossible movie.
We arrived at Cape Reinga in pitch darkness. Other than the ghostly, nearly-full moonlight directly overhead it was pitch dark …… Once everything was unloaded from the taxi and the driver left us it felt as if we were at the farthest edge of the universe or so it seemed. In addition to fumbling around with all of our bags of gear we needed to reassemble our bikes, load them up, eat some breakfast and down some instant coffee. We started our bike tour with Jupiter rising in the sky. With Jupiter’s bright light leading the way, we plunged up and down the hills of the Cape with Luc’s bike being in the lead. I could see his headlight piercing the darkness and his flashing tail pulsing red. A visual treat. We cycled 16 kilometers to the turn off onto a gravel road taking us toward the beach. The gravel road took us through farmland and ended at a massive sand dune and a small stream. We rode and walked our bikes to the Tasman Sea, beginning our ride on Ninety Mile Beach. The beach turned out to be 84 kilometers of riding on the sand and eventually led us to the small village of Ahipara. The delight we felt of reaching the end of the beach was beyond words. We achieved our goal for the first day and rode the entire beach in one go!
Riding into Ahipara, we were fortunate enough to be allowed to wash the salt and sand off our bikes at the Ahipara Holiday Park. What a treat!!
As we biked the main road deeper into Ahipara , our main mission was to track down and enjoy an ice cold beer; at least one, maybe three. To our delight, next door to the general store selling the beer we found an awesome burger joint called Bidz Takeaway. We sat and had ice cold beers and burgers fit for two guys who just biked the first stretch of the Tour Aotearoa!
