I Think I Might Have A Little Lance Armstrong in Me

Well, miraclously I have finished my first leg of my bike trip, Auckland to Thames. Drum roll please...the distance travelled on the first day was 122 km (70 miles or so). The terrain was primarily highway, but the first half was getting out New Zealands largest city (Auckland). That part went pretty well considering I was still fresh to traffic driving on the left side of the road and I had never biked with 35lbs of weight strapped to the back of my bike. The roads were flat and smooth for the most part so it was easy going. Once i was out of the city is when I started to see some of the ups and downs of NZ roads. Kiwis would call them bumps but coming from Minnesota where almost everything is flat, unless you get up north, they were pretty massive hills. All in all it would probably be considered one of the easier legs of the trip but I will not lie it was pure hell. It did not help that I was not as physically ready for the trip as I would have liked to have been, but hopefully after about a week I will be a bit more conditioned. Some downhill cruises were rather nerve racking while on the shoulder of a highway and cars and semis are roaring past you. I quite honestly thought I was not going to make it to my checkpoint, and I proabably would not have if were not for the last 40 km of pure flat farm country. I recieved just as many funny looks from cows and sheep as I did passing drivers. All said and done I made it, I feel pretty rugged and proud that i made it so far on my first day (122 km is one of the longer legs of the trip, less than a handful of days will be more than a 100 km). 

Sorry but I don't have pictures of the bike ride so far and that is because I honestly did not have any time to spare. Every minute counted on me reaching Thames before nine at night so I could check into my backpackers (hostel). The final tidbit about the ride that I will leave my readers with is this; a trip that would have taken the leisurely driver in a car one and a half hous took me EIGHT!

Cheers

-Matthew