Grueling ride today, as you can see. (sarcasm) Just as we were waking up, a Polish lady rode into camp. She was the frontrunner of the official TA race. (It’s technically not a race, but…it’s a race.) She’d been riding all day and all night, completing our first five days in one go. Ian made her some breakfast and decaf coffee, and then she promptly laid her sleeping bag in the grass (no tent), threw a jacket over her face, and zonked out (in the now-scorching sun). Tried to zonk out. Because, as it so happened, a group of fifteen rowdy ex-convicts so happened to be having a dirtbike and quad weekend at this very campground this very weekend (read: they were very loud). It was a hilarious clashing of subcultures, especially as more and more cyclists rolled in throughout the day, intense and wearing tight clothing. The boat arrived at 1:30, and all of us tightly clad individuals were whisked off across Kaipara Harbour. We had explicitly planned our NZ trip to avoid the official TA depart, yet somehow we had found ourselves in its midst. The boat landed, and off the racers went, the Polish lady at the helm. My group and a handful of others opted to set up camp in the grass at the local boat club and drink beer with the local fishermen. For dinner, a one minute walk to the burger joint. All the cycling in recent days had really been distracting us from the Beer and Burger Tour, but we were finally back on track.