New Zealand is a 14 hour flight away, and Coromandel (where I wanted to start the ride) is another 2-hour ferry ride away. Arriving in Auckland wasn’t very exciting, but once we got on the ferry and left the city, it all changed. Taking the water way instead of the bus is a lot more expensive, but the scenic boat ride is well worth the extra dollars.

Not sure if it’s the lack of sleep, but it took for ever to assemble our bikes. It took us a good hour to unpack the bikes and install the luggage on them. If someone was watching, they probably had a good laugh; the wind would carry away any material that wasn’t secure, each of us packed and unpacked and repacked our bags a good number of times. When we finally got going, my front tire was almost flat, straps got caught in my wheel, we rode on the wrong side of the road.… Yup! Good thing the campground was just a kilometre away. No mechanical issues, the bicycles were packed by an expert and they were in perfect condition after the flight (thanks Tony!)

We managed to fit a 20km ride today, but jet lagged and very tired, it’s an early bedtime for all of us after tasting the local mussels and wine.

Anne-Marie is the owner of Liv Vancouver, the first female focused bicycle boutique of its kind in Canada. She is an avid cyclist and avid bike packer, having ridden her bike down the west coast from Vancouver to San Francisco twice, among other exciting two-wheeled expeditions. She is now on a month bicycle tour through New Zealand with her daughter Frederique and Liv Vancouver co-worker Kelsey. Visit Anne-Marie’s personal blog here.