Day 7 Saturday - Matamata - Mangakino
Strava Stats: 96.46km, 1452m altitude gain, 6h cycling, average 16km/h
From Matamata, back roads took me to the Waikato river trail, and pleasant cycling to Arapuni, and the Rhubarb cafe for lunch. Tom was there, and Millie and Mike arrived as I left. There was a closed section of the trail, so riders had to divert around on country roads - probably a bit easier!! I rejoined the trail 19km before Mangakino, and had a tough single-track ride that went up and down, and up again etc etc.... Hard at the end of the day!
Free camping by the lakeside for the night - and a delicious swim in the surprisingly warm water was great after a long warm day! Alan arrived later, and a couple of other TA cyclists. In town, I bumped into Millie, Mike , Matt and Tom, and had an underwhelming (but cheap) meal at the chip shop.
I swam and camped at Mangakino and also keenly recall that last slog to get there!!
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