During the night I was woken by the sound of the sound of rain on the roof and when I woke at 6am, there was horrendous thunder, lightning and torrential rain and then to cap it off, there was a power cut! The sky was as dark as.

The power came back on, but was somewhat erratic for the next couple of hours. Thankfully I could access the Met Service site with the tablet and the rain radar just had the Auckland area covered as one blob..

When the power came back on, the morning TV programmes were referring to the vicious electrical storm that was impacting particularly north of Auckland.

Great, I did not really want an enforced stay in Wellsford as what would you do for the day…! Tomorrow could also be the same. Decided to wait until closer to checkout time to make a decision, but I was keen to try and get across the city today even if it meant getting wet.

Later there was a clearing in the weather in that it stopped raining and actually looked a bit brighter. I decided that this was the sign that I was looking for, although in the knowledge that I was likely to get a wet backside at some time today.., but rolled out of the motel at about 9.15am.

I had decided to not retrace my route of getting to Wellsford through Helensville and Henderson, but to take the ferry from Devonport to downtown Auckland, but this would mean riding on SH1 for approx 40k till I could turn off and get onto the Hisbiscus Coast highway.

The ride started off okay, but then when the road narrowed and there were a few climbs, the heavans opened up and boy did it rain. It was just coming down in South Island West Coast fashion, although it was not cold.

The road shoulder was not great as there was a significant change in the height of the hot mix and how they you could be expected to ride on this as it was very narrow to the rumble strip and the surface was obviously rough.. I know that cyclists are perhaps not encouraged on this section of SH1 but the roading engineers need to look at the road surface from a cyclists point of view as frequently there was no option but to ride in the vehicle lane to the annoyance I am sure of the truckies.

In addition to the torrential rain which was already like standing in the shower, when trucks and trailers past you, it was like the shower was on turbo, except that in addition you got sprayed with all this grit for good measure.. At least I had only 40ks to put up with it but the turn off could not come soon enough which was right at the start of the northern motorway where it goes into a tunnel and there was a vicious climb but it was worth it to get out of the traffic.

Despite it being overcast and cloudy, there were great views over the bay but I could not be bothered to stop to get the tablet out for a photo.

The road then went through Waiwera, Hatfields Beach, Orewa and there were rather steep climbs out of each. Orewa was a stop for brunch and to recharge. It is amazing how much a bit of food and a warm drink gives you motivation to get going.

Before leaving Orewa came across a bike shop so took the opportunity to borrow a track pump even though high tyre pressure on a wet road is not a good combination but bike shops have been few and far between. The Maps application had given me a route to Devonport but it seemed a bit convoluted and as the rain was now back big time, I was going the shortest route down the Hisbiscus highway which at times ran very close to the northern motorway. There were numerous ups and downs until reached Takapuna and down Lake Street past Ami and on to Devonport where the fare to Auckland was $6, Mr Scott was no charge..

Even though this was mid afternoon, the number of commuters going both ways surprised me. Bikes and other wheeled vehicles were common place.

While Auckland was overcast, the weather had changed in that it was not raining and the sun was actually shining! It was like the harbour was a dividing line for the weather.

Out of the ferry terminal to Quay Street and then it was onto Parnell Road and then through Newmarket to reach Great South Road and then I knew I just had to keep on this road as I was intending to stay back at the same motel in Papakura that I had stayed coming up.

I was quite pleased with myself that I did not have to check the Map application.

Going past the Giant shop on Quay Street, I noted that it is now branded as Bike Barn..

There are sections of Great South Road where there is a good cycle lane and other sections where you literally get squeesed and need to be confident to just hold your line and position be it with a lot of the declines you are travelling as fast as, if not faster than the the traffic flow.

Going through some of the shopping areas, a lot of the clothing stores have their wares on racks on the footpath and if you wanted to buy a hoodie, or a rugby league jersey, this would be the place!

Made it to the motel and they have a vacancy in fact back in the same room, so all good. A good opportunity to clean Mr Scott as after the weather today he was looking a bit dirty and worn…

Good news for me was that the rain cover had kept all the contents of the back pack dry and you would not have got more of a test than today..

It is great to be back in the “modern” world with mobile coverage, after being a couple of days out of range, although the tablet seemed to get some coverage whereas the mobile got nothing in some of these areas.

Total ks for the day was 116 and pleased that I am now south of Auckland CBD, really feel like I am making progress south.