The last day! Today's objective was to get to the finish line at Bluff, which I did relatively easily by about 3.00pm. I started early at 6.45am while it was well and truly dark. I was mindful that I had 140km to ride and the forecast was a tad average, although this was to be the first and only day with no climbs. After 15km my back tyre was a tad soft. I had a go at pumping it up, but that only lasted 2km so I replaced the tube. I've not had a lot of fun fixing punctures with this bike. I've done a quite a few over the years but I've struggled to get these tyres both off and back on and today was no exception - and it did take quite a while today to fix. I was really grateful for the tail wind today as it would have been a long hard day otherwise. However, the large number of Sounds 2 Sounds riders I stayed with last night and also passed in the early morning going in the opposite direction were less enthusiastic about what was a head wind for them. Today's ride w...
Yesterday started with a fairly flat 50km ride up to the start of the Haast Pass climb.This was going to be a bigger day at approx 150km to Wanaka. It's now noticeably darker in the mornings with sunrise after 7.30am vs 7am st Cape Reinga. It's also noticeably colder in the mornings. After a misty start the weather was spectacularly good and the scenery remains outstanding. I saw a couple of other TA riders for the first time in a few days. I had last seen this couple at the start of the Timber Trail in the middle of the North Island where we had shared accommodation. The Haast Pass is a fantasticly scenic ride and a decent climb. However I was soon wheeling it down the other side to Makarora for coffee. From Makarora I rode alongside Lakes Wanaka and Hawea. I finished the day off with 30kms along the Hawea River and Wanaka Outlet trails to Wanaka arriving about 7pm. Wanaka was buzzing with life, prob boosted by the A...
I'm doing the Tour Aotearoa ("TA") and I've started a blog! I'll to update from time to time depending on energy levels and phone coverage. This is a post of a practice ride from Wellington to Masterton on 18 January. The post is probably a bit longer than I'll do on the TA...... Well time to load up the bike and give some distance riding a go to see if what I've signed up for is actually manageable. Think it should be okay, but I don't actually know for sure. It's about a month away from the start of my TA and while I'm not totally set up yet I've now got enough gear to give it a go. So I'm riding from home to Masterton via all the bike trails. Should be a straight forward ride with easy riding conditions with only modest climbing on good trails and good weather. The main challenge will be the distance at ~125kms which is longer than I've previously ridden. The first challenge is to load the bike up and see if the gear actually fi...
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