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| Leaving Gisborne |
Unlike the previous trips we decided to pack a little extra food so that we wouldn't have to rely on the stores along the way and therefore we could slow the flow from of our emptying bank accounts! We added to our diets Peanut butter, Corned beef, (donated) Fruit loaf, Baked beans, Porridge and as always we still had Tuna fish, Milk powder and glucose.
After about 10 min of ridding up the main road of Gisborne my tyre decided to explode, now normally I wouldn't have been to annoyed but seeing as we just fixed a whole bunch of other problems it did sort of get at me. Plus the most annoying and probably silly thing was that I didn't have a bike pump that worked for my tyres instead the guy's in Auckland gave me two pumps that only worked on Wolfy's bike!!!! So although it only took a few minutes to replace the tube I still had to walk to the nearest service station to inflate it.... Hahaha and being a bit of a Muppet I walked instead of using Wolfy's bike.
Now the first leg after leaving Gisborne was hard work due to a very strong southerly head wind, so instead of averaging 20 km/h on the flats we were only doing about 10 km/hour.
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| View from the Wharerata's |
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| View from the Wharerata's |
It started to become dark around 6 pm and it was getting pretty cold, so we decided to start looking for a place to camp. Still on the down hill section of the Wharerata's, we spotted a hidden clearing off to the left, it looked like it was used to park large vehicles used for construction. This was the first time camping on clay and yes it was a fair bit harder then grass!
That night was a cold, wet night and the rain came down at a surprising rate. Now we had purchased some water proofing spay back in Tauranga that apparently "makes rain just run straight off of any fabric." However in the morning the tent was still damp and water droplets hang to the fabrics surface, we were not satisfied customers :(
Because of the temperatures slowly dropping everyday, we began sleeping in track pants and long sleeve shirts. This also worked out quite well in the mornings as it's normally very chilly until around 11 am at which point the black roads become frying pans and we switch out into board shorts and T shirts.
It was epic to get up in the morning, pack the gear onto the bikes and then enjoy a 15 km downhill into Morere, a town known for its thermal pools... Unfortunately we were more keen on moving km's then sitting and relaxing in warm water! So we continued onwards.
Our first stop was taken just past Nuhaka. It was a shame we couldn't be bothered biking across to Mahia beach, but we just couldn't justify biking a 32 km return trip to look at surf that we couldn't have surfed without boards.
The day was getting hot, so when we arrived in Wairoa we stopped off at a dairy to get 2 litres of cold milk, it was pretty funny as well because there was a sign that said Wairoa free WiFi and yet we couldn't find the signal anywhere???? However that was all right because we really only just left Gisborne the other day.
Just upon leaving Wairoa, we realised we had forgot to fill up our camel packs and there was abit of miscommunication as I had about a litre of water left and I thought wolf was only drinking my water because his was buried pack deep in his panniers.... However is he was actually out!!!! Now normally this wouldn't have been to bad, except that between Wairoa and Raupunga is about 35 km of hills, meaning at least 2 hours in blazing hot sun, before reaching a house..... This was probably hands down the hardest part of our journey, it was even worse then ridding in the pouring rain! 2 hours without water, ridding uphill on one of the hottest days so far. At one point we spotted a red Powerade drink with a few drops left in it and we were about to share its contents, except the smell of it just seemed so wrong, a mix of melted plastic and artificial sweeteners. Then there were the little muddy puddles of water along the roadside, but again our logic said no, as strange insects paddled about within the water.
When we finally spotted a house, we parked our bikes, knocked on the door and asked this very nice old lady for some water, she pointed us in the direction of the water tap. The funny thing was that it only took about 300 mls of water to make us go from feeling down to feeling extremely good, it's strange how when you're deprived of something as simple as water, how much your mind forgets about every other stress and only cares about hydrating! Anyhow we thanked the lady and continued on until we reached the Mohaka viaduct where we stopped for a break.
It started to reach about 5 pm and we still had about 50 km before Lake Tutira where we were planning on camping, and on top of the time constraint wolfy had broken another two spokes on his newly replaced rim, he was also having issues with his front crank bearings and most of the remaining distance was made up of hills. However we managed to arrive in Tutira just as the last of the light disappeared.
The next morning was a beauty, with only blue sky to be seen, not to mention the location of the camp site sat right between two amazing lakes, unfortunately although the water appeared extremely clean and it was possible to see the more then 3 meters down, signs covered the area labelled with a parasite that caused itchy rashes.... No thank you!!!
Anyway we continued onwards and within 20 mins we reached the last hill of the journey, it was called the devil's elbow and except for having huge logging trucks flying past at crazy speeds and us having the smallest shoulder lane we've seen so far, the hill itself wasn't that bad to climb, it was long yes, but not steep. However again we ran out of water!! Luckily at the top was an amazing royal gayla apple tree and it held our thirst back for a while!
At the bottom of the huge hill we then had our first real detour to go see a waterfall. Now for safety reasons, we ended up pushing our bikes along a 40 min uphill bush track all the way to this waterfall, instead of leaving them in the parking lot, this was a huge effort and was very frustrating.
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| Kurt looking at waterfall |
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| Wolf looking at waterfall |
Once at the main waterfall we were pretty disappointed, as there was no swimming hole and the view was mediocre. However there was another fall that ended up being so sweet, having not only a waterfall, but a little rock-climb and a swimming hole!!!! Plus the water was coooold, which is exactly how we wanted it after ridding those big hills!!!!
After leaving the Te Ana falls we stop off at a marae to re-fill our water bladders. The rest of the trip until Napier was basically just straight flat roads. At one point along the way this guy pulled out from a house behind us on his bicycle and boosted in front of us, now we just kept our normal speed and after a while we started to catch the guy again. It was funny as he began looking over his shoulder and trying to ride harder each time we started catching him, it was pretty amusing seeing this guy trying to race us after we had just come 50 km over some very big hills and had made close to 250 km in two days, it was even funnier when we passed him staying at the same comfortable speed we always ride at :)
Once in Napier we stopped off at a Countdown and bought 2 litres of milk, 4 litres of simply squeezed juice and some bacon toppers. We managed to down everything except for 2 litres of the orange juice, yip needed a bit of tummy time so we sat in this nice garden park area and waited until we could move again.
The remainder of the trip was then spent on the I-way which is a high way for bicycles, it was probably one of the nicest routes we've taken and it would be cool to see it implemented in more towns around the country.
It was around 4 pm when we finally arrived at the Wiehahn's beautiful home in Havlock north, 250 km from Giborne, two and a half days later.
Nice one boys.!!
ReplyDeleteHaha its crack up about that guy you passed.. he must have been gutted..
Keep the updates rolling.. You two are Mad Dogs..