The day started with drizzle which continued off and on for a while until I made it to Patea. The road though was good all the way with a reasonable shoulder except on the uphill sections where there are passing lanes and on bridges. Despite what I've said so far about trucks most of them give me plenty of space, some even slow down and a few acknowledge my friendly "thank you' wave after they've passed. It's just a few, truck and car drivers, who seem to be more worried about getting too close to the centre line WHICH IS MADE OUT OF PAINT rather than give me a little bit more room AND I'M MADE OF FLESH AND BONE. But then you could argue that the paint didn't choose to be there and I have. Anyway wee rant over......
In Patea I stopped off at the beach. The black sand is beautiful and the myPod switched to poi e by the Patea Maori club. (Funny that.)
It's a generally rolling ride but at each river crossing the road's steep downhill to the river and then steep back up again. Somehow this seemed worse than going over a similarly steep hill. maybe it's nicer to do the uphill first and have the downhill to enjoy later.
In the afternoon the wind switched to the south east and so I had my first taste of battling a headwind. It's not fun. At least with a hill you can see the top and know when it'll end! the wind and the strong sun combined to burn my left ear - the bigger of the two.
I was glad to get to Wanganui but possibly pushed it too hard and too far. Once again i drank too little.
Tomorrow is a day off and then I'll look at days of 75-85km to see if they go better than these 90-100km ones.
I'm staying at the Castlecliff Seaside Holiday park. It's nice but quite a way out of town (about 7km) and there's no supermarket nearby. I ended up resorting to a can of soup for dinner after the regulation chip butties which I had down at the beach at sunset. The sunset was pretty stunning with the black sand and lots of driftwood from the Whanganui River.
If you're wondering why the town's called "Wanganui" but the river's "Whanganui" - it seems to come down to the chosen spelling of early British settlers based on the way the local Maori pronounced the word at the time (mid 1800s). There's currently an ongoing debate in Wanganui about changing the spelling of the town to Whanganui with die hards on both sides.
Other than the classic Poi E the myPod featured a good length rendition of "Ant Music" by Adam and The Ants.
In Patea I stopped off at the beach. The black sand is beautiful and the myPod switched to poi e by the Patea Maori club. (Funny that.)
It's a generally rolling ride but at each river crossing the road's steep downhill to the river and then steep back up again. Somehow this seemed worse than going over a similarly steep hill. maybe it's nicer to do the uphill first and have the downhill to enjoy later.
In the afternoon the wind switched to the south east and so I had my first taste of battling a headwind. It's not fun. At least with a hill you can see the top and know when it'll end! the wind and the strong sun combined to burn my left ear - the bigger of the two.
I was glad to get to Wanganui but possibly pushed it too hard and too far. Once again i drank too little.
Tomorrow is a day off and then I'll look at days of 75-85km to see if they go better than these 90-100km ones.
I'm staying at the Castlecliff Seaside Holiday park. It's nice but quite a way out of town (about 7km) and there's no supermarket nearby. I ended up resorting to a can of soup for dinner after the regulation chip butties which I had down at the beach at sunset. The sunset was pretty stunning with the black sand and lots of driftwood from the Whanganui River.
If you're wondering why the town's called "Wanganui" but the river's "Whanganui" - it seems to come down to the chosen spelling of early British settlers based on the way the local Maori pronounced the word at the time (mid 1800s). There's currently an ongoing debate in Wanganui about changing the spelling of the town to Whanganui with die hards on both sides.
Other than the classic Poi E the myPod featured a good length rendition of "Ant Music" by Adam and The Ants.
Holy cow Stu, what a blog your keeping up here!! I am so going down those hills with you, and I felt your frustration with the headwind...I had my share of headwind yesterday, and I felt like getting down on the ground and cry like a baby at one point...:) I will get back to reading of you days now, just had to through in a comment!:) XX Jenny
ReplyDeleteps. email (long overdue) is in the making. ds