Hot Hot. Miranda at last. Tired Legs.

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I'm now at the campground at Miranda Host springs. I was a 37km, 2 1/2hour ride. There weren't any big hills, but I was just worn out. For thelast 5k, it was "Where is that campground, it should be here by now!".

In hindsight, I should have been thankful for all those cold morningstarts on my South island tour, where I had to wear fleece pants and myrain jacket to keep warm. This morning the sweat was pouring off beforeI even got the tent packed up (and my site was in the shade).

I don't know if I'm just not fit enough or it is the heat, but I have noleg stamina. They were just tired when I got here. I thought that Imight not be getting enough electrolytes or something, as I have beendrinking a lot of water, so I even had a sports drink at the Kaiauastore on the way. I felt a little better, but it was short-lived. Myknees have been hurting a bit as well, particularly the left one. Ihaven't had knee pains before, so I need to keep an eye on it.

This big gray heron keep flying by outside the window I'm next to andlanding in a tree nearby. It seems to just come and go as I've noticedit do this three times so far (or it might be several birds, all of whomlike the landing spot).

The ride down the Seabird Coast was thick with birds. I certainlycouldn't identify many of them but there were hundreds of black swans inthe ponds behind the gravel pit along the coast and there were lots ofsmall wading birds in the shallow flats in the wildlife reserve. Therewere also lots of campervans along a strip of coast where they canfree camp (But that's a whole different kind of bird).

I also saw some wild turkeys on my ride out of Orere Point, one with four or five small chicks (or whatever baby turkeys are called).

I may stay here an extra day to recuperate and then head towards TeAroha and Matamata. I was tempted to go along the coast, but the onlyroute is RT 2 and that is really busy and fast, so I think I'll take aninland route. After Te Aroha, it depends on how my body feels.

As son as I get some free Internet time I'll update these posts with route maps and add some photos (there aren't many yet).

Here are some photos from this morning: