New Zealand is simply stunning in the summer, every year it peaks the list of popular tourist destinations, and rightly so. We still marvel at the scenery as we ride on a daily basis, and welcome any opportunity to share it. As warm days approach, our Canadian relatives flock south to the warm climate, eager to escape the bitter cold and take full advantage of the free accommodation.

Boxing Day. For some it means sales, others a hang-over and a general feeling of “I ATE TOO MUCH YESTERDAY!!!”, others it’s the annual Boxing day races, for us its picking a route that will avoid the most holiday traffic possible while still showing some stunning Coromandel Peninsula scenery.

Friday afternoon, the sun was out and it couldn’t get any stiller. In a bit of a last minute decision we decide on doing a 2-1/2 day ride to the tip of the North Island of New Zealand. To Cape Reinga and the lighthouse there.

The alarm chirped at 7:00 AM, the sun blasting through the dark curtains won’t help if we pull the covers over our heads. Without much hesitation, we climb out of bed and perform our wake-up rituals. The previous night we had done the bulk of the packing, which made the morning start less ominous.

There are rods for our backs and for our eyes, and cones for smoking and seeing. Rods distinguish shapes, cones determine colour. In the hour before dawn the rods rule – there are shapes without …