Day 6 - Takaka take 2

Swim 50mins
Bike 140km (broken)
Aquathon swim 1.5km / run 8km

We opened up with a catch up 50min open water swim at 6:30am – this was to catch up the swim we missed on the big bike day. I spotted a buoy several hundred meters off short and was going to do a couple of loops of it. The water at Collingwood is very tidal and shallow. As we swam out it just didn’t get any deeper (.5-2m) and we could see everything on the bottom, for some reason I thought I was going to see a dead body staring up at me. Further on I was starting at what I thought was a strange looking rock then with a puff of sand the supposed rock (which was actually a sting ray) shot off. That scared the crap out of me but there was nobody around with their head up to tell so I pushed on thinking it might be a one off. I then saw another ray and then another and that was enough for me. As I turned around Madman and The limpet were close by and also freaking out a little. As Madman and I put our heads back under there was another one under us - not fun. We finished off the rest of the swim close to shore.

Today’s bike was about 50km with a little rolling then back over the Takaka hill. After an easy warm up I could see this turning into an easy ride, when that has happened in the past Gordo has been here to take up the slack. He’s not here so I felt it my duty to get on the front and keep a steady tempo (which I did all the way to the bottom of the climb).
Over the hill to Kaiteri and we had an Aquathon. I needed to defend my title here and did so in tricky conditions. It was backing hot and I had set a tough run with several climbs. Fat Albert did a great run to take the terminator on the line after he has been rolled over in the KOM. Likewise Mullie made it an IMTalk 1-2 finish with a great run.
An addition to this years epic was a winery trip on the way to Nelson. We popped into Neurdorf winery which was spectacular. They allowed us to take in some lovely cheese, grapes, salami and dips. This was a great way to almost end the day and hopefully a permanent addition to the camps.
On the final spin home (35km) my left knee really gave out and I had to more or less grovel home one legged. Hopefully that clears up overnight, most likely it was a result of pushing it on the run today.
Tomorrow is another tough day with 180km of riding.