![](\"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/rickpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/rps20181025_183146480549044.jpg\")
<\/p>\nImpending bad weather and not much by way of interim choices meant I needed to make a 110 km jump today. I left the hostel by 8:00 am, successfully avoiding the drunk guy from last night who didn’t like Americans.<\/p>\n
With a long way to go, I initially opted for the small highway instead of the slower Rails to Trails cycle way. The first 40 km flew pleasantly by, flat. I passed Hobbiton, but didn’t see any hobbits. Tourist attractions in NZ are wildly expensive (touring Hobbiton is ~$100 USD).<\/p>\n
My fans follow me everywhere, gathering whenever I stop for food, water, and sunscreen. They even chase me when I cycle off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I reached Tirau, I briefly merged with State Road 1 – the same road as my drive to Auckland – before diverting to State Road 5.<\/p>\n
Heavy traffic and steep climbing became a focal point for the next 30 km. With occasional walking I reached an elevation of 500 m. Rain followed me (more a steady mist above the cloud line).<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The drop into Rotorua was 10+ km of rapid descent into the caldera. I forecast an intense ride out.<\/p>\n
Andy is here in Rotorua through tomorrow! We’ll hopefully connect later tonight. I’m at Rotorua Central Hostel, he’s elsewhere.\u00a0 Nice hostel.<\/p>\n
I did a wildly better job today with calories. I’m saddle-sore and achy, but I kept my energy up (tho still not 100%, see walking comment above). That said, I’m taking a break for a few days. Time to explore and recharge a bit. I also hung out the tent to dry.<\/p>\n
I’ve had another person tell me the path from this side of NZ to the other is fraught with peril. Desirous of avoiding death, a bus is in my future!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Impending bad weather and not much by way of interim choices meant I needed to make a 110 km jump today. I left the hostel by 8:00 am, successfully avoiding the drunk guy from last night who didn’t like Americans. With a long way to go, I initially opted for the small highway instead of … Continue reading “181025-Second Breakfast Was Just The Beginning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2567"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3236,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567\/revisions\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}