Day 15 - Sunday 16th March: Rest Day

Muscles very stiff, so great to have a day off, but so much to do at home, its hardly a rest day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 11: Wednesday - Whakahoro to Whanganui

Image
Set off at first light (of a really beautiful day) for what I'd been told was a really difficult track to the Bridge to Nowhere on the Whanganui river 40 km away. Four T.A cyclists had been helicoptered to hospital from here so far! The weather was great, and the track (back road and singletrack) was absolutely fine, a joy to ride with wonderful scenery - my favorite riding so far! There was a 500m climb before dropping  to the river, but I made to 40km in 4 hours, so had 90 mins spare before the jet boat to Pipiriki. After lunch at the jet boat office/cafe place, I left the other cyclists (who'd decided to stay there) for the 80km cycle to Wanganui along the Wanagnui river road. Finally I felt fit and strong and averaged 20km/h to reach the house of a friend (Fiona Shaw) before dark.
Read more

Day 12 - Thursday March 19th, Wanganui to Palmerston North

I didn't get up particularly early, and after leaving Fiona's house I went to the bike shop to get my front derailleur fixed (loose screw) before heading off. I decided to try and make it to Palmerston North due to the weather forecast - the following day was due to be wet west of the main divide, and I didn't fancy camping - so making it to a friend (Chris) in PN seemed a good idea. A tail wind helped, and the first 60km to Hunterville was all on road. Lunch at a lovely cafe there, then the difficult stuff - heading east to the edge of the Ruahine ranges, with lots of hills and gravel roads. The route took me to Rangiwahia, a village on a high plateau at the base of the Ruahines that I'd never even heard of, and felt like the back of beyond. A little further on the road switched back south-west to Apiti and on to Ashurst, through three deep gorges (with huge uphill climbs). The last 2 1/2 hours were in the dark- I didn't get to Chris's till 10,30pm ! I...
Read more

Day 7 Saturday - Matamata - Mangakino

Image
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.
Read more