Ferry tickets booked

You need to think about ferry time tables when making plans. I made the assumption there would be daily departures to Coromandel much like there is a daily ferry to Waiheke.  I could just roll on down an catch the 8:45AM ferry out. However when booking my ticket today I found the ferry only leaves Auckland at 6PM on the 18 Feb with no 8:45AM option. That's put a spanner in the plan. So I could either

1. Take the 8:45 and stay in Coromandel for the night
2. Cycle in the Dark to Thames
3. Or catch the 8:45am then next day.

Cycling in the Dark; well I have done a a lot of that and I have all the gear but would be such a shame to miss the beauty. So option 2 was out. Option 1 makes sense however I have elected to stay an extra night at home and catch the 8:45am ferry. I will then do a Days 5 and 6 in one day.   I will try get Graham to meet me in Thames to swap out my wheels so I can go from road to dirt wheels in Thames.