TA Prevailing Weather

Heads or Tails?

After having a lovely golfing interlude in NZ this week, I’m seriously reconsidering my packing goal.

We were lucky enough to play a round with a fellow who completed the TA almost a year ago to the day. Unlike us, he courageously took on the tour from start to finish - all 3000 plus kilometres of it. Cape Rienga to Bluff - it even sounds spectacular, doesn’t it - Cape to Bluff.

In any case, he covered enormous distances daily and was kind enough to share his journal from the tour with us. Which made me think hard about the day to day of the trip…..

The first image in Matt’s journal was a foggy, rain soaked Cape Rienga Lighthouse - the celebrated starting point of the tour. In my mind, I had the start of the tour a bright sunny day, the ocean glistening in the morning sun, 90 Mile Beach stretched before us - an instagram post with a million plus likes. I was imagining a day kind of like the shot above - sun shining, no wind - see the Pin Flag bottom left - hanging limp, and views to the horizon.

His next image, him carrying his bike barefoot through the flooded bikeway - all in the first half hour of the tour, before he’d even reached the famed 90 Mile Beach. The upside, he told us, was a tail wind that saw him take on that famous beach in a tidy 3.5 hours.

So if it came down to making choices about bikini weather with a headwind or galoshes, rain and fog with tailwind - give me the galoshes every day of the week. I’m secretly crossing my fingers for the ultimate combination - a perfect sunny day with a beautiful breeze from behind.

On packing though - I’m definitely aiming for less than that 10kg previously discussed - anything superfluous is NOT coming and the very best quality wet weather gear is at the very top of the list!

Thanks Matt for the heads up on the TA and for a truly magnificent game of golf at the beautiful Tara Iti :)