Kev and I woke up kinda out of sorts today…our travels here in New Zealand are coming to an end! We have traveled from the Deep South to the Far North, and it has literally been a life changing experience. We have toyed with the idea of spending more time here, but, the increasing cooling weather nipping at us has me thinking otherwise. We got it sorted and decided that we would head up to Cape Reinga, the northern most point in New Zealand today. The wind gusts were fierce and toyed with us all day. As we headed through corners, the wind would hit us from different angles and kept whipping us back and forth across the lane. It definitely takes a beating on your body. I radioed Kev…"Do you want to do the 90 mile beach before Cape or after?" Before was Kevin's response! I was not real sure what was going on at this beach, but there was a lot of traffic heading down there, so, we had to check it out. The road led us right onto the beach…so that's where we went. We could have actually rode it up to the next town if we wanted to, so I found out later…The sand was quite soft almost silty in spots, and just wanted to take you down… not the greatest feeling in the world! Riding down to moister, packed area along oceanfront as quickly and carefully as possible seemed to be the plan. We rode around in circles for awhile and then decided to get back on track to the Cape. I knew that the sand was soft where we entered the beach and was searching for a better line on exit. I found it, planned out my approach, and went for it…cool, no probs! I pulled over at the top and waited for Kev…well I waited, and waited. Crikey, I think that something may have happened? I held my breathe as I found myself anxiously radioing him…there was no answer…then it came in… "I went down." I nervously turned around to go find him… Kev already had his bike back up, was shaken but not hurt. He had cracked his windscreen in half but apart from that there did not seem to be any other sign of bike damage…just shaken nerves. We pulled out the tape of all tapes…Duck Tape, or is it Duct Tape? Either way this tape rocks! We lined up the breaks and secured it…got a handle on the situation, pulled ourselves together, and rode on to the Cape. We arrived at the top…Phew…Woo Hoo, and the view was beyond spectacular. There's always a plan… Windy conditions can make for beautiful crisp photo opportunites…and that it was! Kiwi's had told us about the ability to see the mixing of the oceans and I definitely saw something going on out there. The Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean were mixing it up, and you could feel the awesomeness in the air around you…a pretty fantastic feeling!! It was quite a feeling of accomplishment arriving at the Northern most point of New Zealand's North Island…we did it!
The ride up took longer than expected so we only spent a half hour marveling at the world around us before saddling up. The wind gusts had ramped up even more for our return and most of the riding was quite angular…every straight away felt like a corner…ha ha ha. Well after a few hours of winds, dusk was settling in and the winds started to calm down…it was nice to loosen up my grip and shake off the tension. The ride through the lush green countryside framed with cotton candy colored clouds, sapphire blue skies and brilliant autumn foliage was captivating. Then it appeared…the super moon! Such an amazing and surreal sight it sucked me in and lured me from concentration…wow…I was hooked! Moonface was in his full golden glowing glory, illuminating the sky, countryside and ocean…I tell you, I don't have any words that can describe the magic of this moment…I was literally gob smacked!! We decided to ride directly to a restaurant called "Only Seafood" for dinner and celebrate conquering the North. Feeling very privileged, content and proud we basked in the beams of this spectacular super moon and saturated ourselves in the moment. What a fantastic world…how lucky can we get?…think I'm going to cry!