Day 19 - January 29, 2023

Day 19:  Kimbolton - Paihiatua

Leaving Kimbolton our legs spin like windmills as we crank over Paihitua track.  What a wonderful thing a wind-powered bike would be!

Well, the internet was kind of awful at the Brown Trout Motel.  So - after Linda dropped me off I wasn't having much luck with the blog post so I had to go out for dinner with the group and consume even more food!

By all accounts it was a tough but beautiful ride today.  I decided to take another day off the bike, though.  The weather forecast was a bit dire and after yesterday's wet ride I wasn't keen to ride in the rain all day once more.  My friend Linda, from previous WomanTours rides, lives not too far from here and on relatively short notice was kind enough to juggle her schedule to fit me in today.  We originally had planned to meet at the lunch stop but given the forecast she offered to drive over to Kimbolton and pick me up for the entire day.  Lucky me!

Here are some pictures of where we stayed last night.  Five of us were in the restored Bank of New Zealand building/home......


The rest of the group was in the restored Post Office.  Both were great places to stay!




Linda and hubby Alex arrived around 8:30 and whisked me off to The Herb Garden Cafe near Ashhurst.  After browsing through their grounds for a bit we had treats and tea, but they also sell an amazing assortment of herb-based remedies, lotions, etc.  


Then over the Saddle Road to Dannevirke.  What a beautiful route over a small mountain range.  This road will soon be replaced by new motorway currently under construction.  If they continue to maintain Saddle Road, it would make a lovely cycle route to work on one's climbing!  Linda and Alex moved to Dannevirke from Auckland a few years ago, and they have beautifully restored a home built in 1914.  Renovations (largely done by Alex) both inside and out have made this a stunning home.  





And - they both seem to be very happy with their new community.  Linda continued to feed and water me all day.  We had a great visit and after a short walk through a local natural area she delivered me to our destination hotel in Pahiatua, with a large chunk of delicious banana bread (with cream cheese and cranberry icing) in hand.  

The day's weather turned out to be really good - no rain and pretty warm temperatures.  But - I don't for a minute regret spending the day catching up with Linda instead.  


Stats for the day:

Distance: 0 km

Elevation (Garmin):  0

Elevation (RWGPS):  0

Weather:  Beautiful.  Mostly sunny and warm.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - January 11, 2023

Image
Day 1:  Arrive in Pukenui Arrive in Pukenui.  Transport from Auckland to Kaitaia is available with Tua Tahi Shuttles, Intercity Coachlines and Barrier Air.  Meet with your tour leaders and fellow bikers at 5pm for your pre-departure meeting and first meal together.   I was a little bit discouraged by the rain yesterday, so thought I would check the forecast.  Tropical cyclone Hale is in the area, but hopefully will be at its worst to the south and east of here.  Although the morning started out quite cloudy the sun did break through and with any luck we won't have to start the cycling tomorrow in a cyclone! What I did wake up to this morning was this............. ...... outside my motel room door.  I guess I'm in the right place.  Turns out a few more people have opted to rent bikes and they have a few spares, so they arrived with a fairly full trailer.  The tandem on top is an e-tandem that a couple from the UK have rented.  The Es...
Read more

Introduction

Image
Well, it's time to start packing my bags again.  Headed for New Zealand this time, and biking something called the Tour Aotearoa.  I believe the official Tour Aotearoa is a full-on mountain biking/bike packing route but I'm not that tough.  I have found a NZ company, Escape Adventures NZ, that does a fully supported version of the ride.  While the recommended bike to use is a hard-tail mountain bike, we'll be on "sealed" roads 58% of the time.  The remainder will be 18% quiet gravel roads, 22% cycle trails, and a bit of beach-riding plus one section (that I know of) of what sounds like single-track.  I'll be renting a bike from the tour company.  Apparently they have been kind enough to switch the brakes for me since (along with cars driving on the opposite side of the road to North Americans) their bike brake levers are generally on opposite sides to ours.  The route is 3000 km.  We will cycle this over 34 days, so an average of about 90 km ...
Read more

Day 23 - February 2, 2023

Image
Day 23:  Picton - Havelock We get our wheels turning on the stunning Queen Charlotte drive.  A shorter riding day offers us time to explore the coastal settlements along the way. This was a pretty gentle introduction to the South Island.  Not stellar weather, but at least the clouds were a little higher than they were yesterday.  Only 35 km total today, so we left an hour later than usual.  Still got in earlier than the hotel was expecting us.   Of course we started climbing almost immediately, although it was quite gentle and not too much at any one time.  We followed the shoreline along Queen Charlotte Drive almost the entire way.  Lovely vistas out to the water.......... Coming out of Picton.  The ferry is just coming in.  They must have a really good backup camera on that thing! I think I had a picture taken at this same lookout 17 years ago.  I'll have to look for it when I get home. We passed a bay with this big lumber ya...
Read more