New Zealand Tour Aotearoa 2023

Day 20:  Paihiatua - Greytown If we get a northerly you'll have a Porters Pinot in your hand soon after lunch.  If we ride into a southerly breeze you'll just have to wait until dinner time! It was a long day for me on the mountain bike, but pretty forgiving terrain.  Net downhill and the little bumps along the way are actually easier on my positioning than absolute flat.   Other than the poor internet, I found the Brown Trout Motel quite comfortable.   I find that, in general, I take a lot more pictures in the morning than in the afternoon.  I'm always interested to see the terrain du jour and the morning light is usually very good.  And - between my slowness and the picture taking, I just get further and further behind as the day goes on.   As we set out this morning, I noticed that the surrounding hills were less tightly folded than those further north.  Views were more wide-open.  We're definitely in farming country to...

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...

Day 18:  Hunterville - Kimbolton Some smooth seal starts the day, but don't get too comfy!  Soon we're back onto a mix of gravel and farm roads.  Taking us from Hunterville to Kimbolton. Well, it poured rain all night last night.  Between that and the Friday night party animals at the bar downstairs, some people didn't get a lot of sleep it seems.  Me - I slept through it all.  It was still raining this morning but everyone geared up and set out on the bikes.  Sounds like it's a good thing we're not close to Auckland.  Apparently a state of emergency has been declared - heavy rains and flooding.  The airport has been closed and flights cancelled.  A university friend is amongst those stranded at the airport trying to head for home.  Good luck to them............. Given the forecast for the day, I buried my phone/camera in a waterproof bag for the day so didn't end up taking any pictures.  This will have to do...... That's prett...

Day 17:  Whanaganui - Hunterville With a bit of a quirky start to the day we warm up heading east out of town on nice flat quiet farming roads.  It wouldn't be NZ without a couple of hearty hills to get your heart happy before hunkering down at the Hunterville Hotel. It was to be a fairly short and easy day, and the destination hotel didn't want us until 3, so we delayed leaving by an hour.  9am departure.  Our route took us pretty much due east; back towards the centre of the north island.  We rode as a group for the first km or so.  Over the Victoria Ave bridge to the Durie Hill Elevator.  Yes, an elevator.  Where was this invention on the first few days of the tour??  Part of the city's public transportation system, it runs all day moving people up and down the hill on the east side of the river to facilitate easier access into the downtown area.  What a concept!  First, we had to ride through a fairly long tunnel to access the e...