Trip recap - day 1

A haze of flu has stoppered my roiling thoughts over the last week, so I won't post as many details on my trip as had been hoped. Here for your enjoyment, however, are notes on the one day of real solid cycling.

Firstly, here are my notes made at the end of the day itself:

• Only 85kms, but very enjoyable.
• Lost momentum sitting in Octagon eating late lunch. [For over an hour]
• Final stretch a bit hard, as essentially out of water so stopped eating snacks also. From town out.
• Got fairly tired a couple of times, but seemed to move through that.
• Just realised forgot to buy cereal for breakfast.
• Left some stuff in locker in town. $1/day - super value.
• Bum a bit tender in shower, but not feeling bad.
• One patch of numb feet. OK after shifted feet.
• Best drink ratio is 1/2 strength raro. [Later added ~1/3t salt to 2L. 2/3t was too much.]
• Airport to Dunedin: 36.1km in 1:57, ~18km/h even with hills. 3:10 elapsed.

Mishaps:

• Past Octagon without noticing it [due to Gay Pride event combining with covered pedestrian paths distracting me from wider (and octagonal) open area the road passed through].
• Apparent off-road cycle path at junction Kirkbride Rd and George Bolt Memorial Dr dumped me back onto the wrong side of a 100km/h road in the middle of a long block.
• Left bike lock key at home with keys I actually didn't need.
• Got stuck on Mosgiel-Dunedin route where signs ran out. A friendly local escorted me on an alternate route he was taking.

Extra notes as best I recollect:

• I left home at 4:49am, arriving at the airport at 5:59 and finding the supermarket had only day-old bread for my breakfast. 22.17km, 18.6km/h avg. (okay, I had that written down.)
  
• Packing the bike took longer than expected - even longer to return home.
• Bike weighed 15kg, with luggage the same again. Just on my limit.
  
• Most campervan people not very friendly. Keep to selves. - perhaps because was weeknight?
• Arrived at campsite at 4:30. Very civilised, and plenty of time to figure out unfamiliar tent.
• Dunedin really is quite hilly.

See also my Flickr set, which has comments covering scenery and other bits of cycling. My biggest hill was climbing to the spine of the peninsular on the way back to town. The first 7km of Highcliff Rd were almost all at snail's pace, and I walked one stretch of about 100m. It didn't help that there were about three false crests where I stopped to rest and take another round of scenic photos. It felt good to stretch the body, though, and after a couple of relaxing days I felt ready for a workout. Now if only I'd gone to bed early every night I was down South...