70km from Te Kaha to Opotoki, total elevation gain 818m

Our final day was quite strenuous again, although it started out as a gentle undulating ride alongside the coast. The road swings inland for a while before it crosses the Motu River, and the biggest hill climb (200m) starts on the other side.

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There are no shops or cafes along this stretch – each town just has a Marae, there are beautiful bays, ocean views and not much else. At one point we did stop and buy some avocados – just a rough sign on the side of the road and an honesty box in the field.

The traffic began to pick up around 30km out from Opotoki, including some logging trucks. Some of them were excellent, giving us heaps of space, but a couple were too close.

We saw our first other cyclists – riding in a peloton. The lady at the Opotiki holiday park later told us that they had stayed there the previous night, they were also riding around the Cape, but with support vehicles carrying their luggage.

We decided to take the new Motu Dune Trail for our final 10km into Opotoki. It is a new easy mountain bike track along the dunes. They have obviously spent a lot of effort and money on it, it even has a boardwalk! Beautiful.

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Our car was safe at the holiday park, though it had suffered from being parked under a tree obviously favored by roosting birds. We cleaned the car, our clothes and packed the bikes up on the bike rack for the next day, before going to the Irish pub for a big beer and steak meal.