yeah… that’ll do it… definitely 900 miles well spent…
I stayed up until 1am deciding if I should take a rest day or not and then when I decided I wanted to ride, I was so nervous-cited that I couldn’t sleep.
Te Anua to Milford Sounds:
The last 72 miles. A hard ride, a good ride and now I can’t sit down anywhere.
- Limited sleep
- Limited food
- Unlimited regrets
I scheduled a cruise around Milford Sound, so I had a time table – I was on track to get there at 1:30 when I hit the halfway mark, but I didn’t account for the climbing, the heat, or a continuous repair cycle of my tire (you may have noticed it in yesterday’s update). So, after my third repair session, as I took a nap in the sun, I let go of going on the cruise and I let go of the timetable (which had made the whole ride way less fun) and chose to embrace the day as it was playing out.
The ride (and rider):
My GPS thought I was going over the mountain and not through the tunnel – and I think that the relief when I saw the tunnel might have saved my life.
The fuel:
Pie I bought 100 miles ago? Hell yeah
Having the perfect amount of food to get me there? Hell yeah
Gong to a cafe and all they have are “snacks” and literally being served a bowl of olives and toast for like $10 US and it took like 20 minutes? Bad style brother, bad style
The next cafe having everything? Hellll yeahhh
The repairs:
Knock on wood. Still truckin. First I added a piece of tube. Then I added a piece of a soup stock box. Then I added a zip tie. The zip tie has failed but the tube lives on!
The ride (drive) back:
I had a lot of trouble looking up during certain stretches on the bike, so it was nice getting a second chance at seeing some of the sights, plus the shuttle driver was an excellent tour guide (very into geo engineering).
I did it. I did the thing. It was hard and it hurt in a lot of different ways. But I did it and I’m proud of myself for doing it.