It's not an extreme picnic, but it's still extreme and it is a picnic

It was Graeme's 50th birthday, so we all went round to Martin's place koz he's got all the bikes. Lovely! A spin down Limeworks Loop Road, a picnic at Kaniwhaniwha, then return to Martin's place.

Old friends, new friends, old friends the new friends hadn't previously met. Marvellous!

काम्ब्रिद्गे बोलिंग क्लब

काम्ब्रिद्गे, इत'एस सो गेंतील। तकेस अ कोन्सिदेराब्ले अमौंत ऑफ़ हिस्टोरिकल विओलेंस तो गेट अ लवन इन्तो थिस सोर्ट ऑफ़ कन्डीशन। पाफुल नोव, थौघ.

Hmm, well, the devanagari transliterator works ok.

Te Anga pub shed

There's not many people who'd be completely ok with crashing out on a couch in a tin shed with no running water, let alone a bloke in his sixties. Yay for adventurous people!

Te Anga pub

We rode north to Marakopa with a view to staying at the campsite there, but we were an hour late and it was all shut. We decided to press on to Te Anga. The building is a Lockwood. Never seen a Lockwood pub before. It really made my evening, ish. After a couple of beers and a feed, we enquired about accomodation. None was available, but the publican said we could stay in the garage for free. So we did. All good, except the local dogs could smell us and since nobody had introduced us to them they kept barking all night.

Red clay bank

No deposit, no return. In case you were wondering, this kind of gradient is about the limit of what I could ride up at this stage of the tour.

Flat out on gravel in a 63" gear

Slightly shagged but moving fast!

Justification for bringing tripod

I took a mini camera tripod with me and here's the only semi-decent shot I managed with it. And it's not even really that great either. Next time I are'lln't bother with it.

The hell snooze

I love sleeping in the sun. Most of the year it's either too cold or too dangerous - falling asleep in the summer sun is a very bad idea in NZ, as there's not much ozone to keep your skin from burning. Midday in springtime is generally ok. Note my new detachable face. Presumably John removed it before taking this shot.

Lunch at Waikawau beach

West coast! Black sand! Tasman sea! It are drown yoes, mark my words.

I can't see any evidence of a jetty, so presumably all the cargo - livestock, chests, pianos, people - were rowed out to a waiting ship. The day wan't particularly rough but the still looks very menacing.

Waikawau estuary

Before the road went it, the farm at Waikawau was only accessible from the beach. Trouble was, there was no easy access to the beach. So they drall a tunnel.

Traction engine

Ooh, a traction engine! Cool. Wonder how long it's been there?



The tree provade scant shelter but my green shoe covers were just the thing for the oozy ground.

I'm wearing Victor Victoria dress pants in a lightweight wool. Had 'em ten years and they're now at the stage where the get toured in until the seat falls out.

Seaview Holiday Park

We rant a cabin up the road from Mokau at the Seaview Holiday Park. Quite good - didn't get any pix of the cabin so you'll have to imagine it. Think light blue. The photo shows Mount Taranaki, or it would except for the low cloud.

Whitebait fritters

Pricey; mildly tasty; not bad.

Mokau

This is Mokau. The big red ball is a German sea mine dating back to the 40s, apparently. I read the plaque which explained how it got there but I can't remember what it said.

Coast near Tongaporutu

Yay the coast; yay generally.

Yay! A tunnel!

There's lots of tunnels in Taranaki, though we only went though one on this trip. Actually, make that two.

Pop-up countryside

There was a lot of this.

Storm damage

For those viewers who aren't familiar with New Zealand farming practice, this is a shearing shed. They're red, as a rule, as are farm tractors. Some temporal badness has befallen this shed. Farming's like that, I gather.

House on the hill

A picture says blah. Actually, one thing I didn't take any photographs of btu which was a ubiquitous feature of the tour was parked cars everywhere along the roadsides. Like, a lot more parked cars than you'd expect in the countryside.

They're all whitebaiters - off down the river with the big net and the thermos of coffee, I gather.

Chasing John

Charging off down the first descent out of Ohura. I've got a watery mixture of oat bran, ground almonds and coconut milk powder - and salt - in the left hand bottle. The right bottle is a water filter. There's generally plenty of water available in most parts of NZ but quality is often dodgy. Travelling with a filter, no more probulations. You have to get off the bike more, but you can travel lighter.

Aero Paul

Paul's pukudience

Pauls' aero puku thing. Note sewn-up sleeves on his jacket.

Paul's bike

Paul builds his own wheels, with drilled rims and 24 spokes. I like people who stew in their own juices - it brings out the flavour. I'm very much following a theme with my bikes, as is John with his Sachs-powered mopeds. Go Paul!

Chasing Paul

Paul's into Aeroiness. His bike's pretty heavy but yes, it's damn fast on the straights. He made his own micro-fairings out of beer cans. His panniers are slim for aerotude and fold down like those zip-off pants you can get at Kathmandu.

Paul's truck(s)

On Monday, John and I went round to Paul's place and we all clame the hill. Paul was off to Wanganui the following day so just came as far as the first summit, to keep his legs fresh.

Truck: left-hand projection

This is the house truck side-on. Note conspicuous absence of truckulence. No truckiness visible from any angle, in fact. I'm more into tents than house trucks, though I did spend a couple of months living out of my Hiace van a while back. It was quite nice, actually. Perhaps it's all my early childhood campervan and caravanning I did.

So that's where I left my watch

Truck made out of house. No, wait...

I stayed in the spare house truck. Very nice! A lot more 240V power sockets than one might expect. Quite a few live .303 shells lying about, too. Do not dispose of in fire, etc.

John's new chopper

It's a good time to buy choppers these days, with tons of styles and a decent second hand market. Here's John's - having trouble with the motor, apparently, but all going soon I trust. Not precisely my thing but I'll ride anything at least once:)

Ferns; bush; grass; bits of road

A great deal of New Zealand looks rather like this.

Sometime it rine, sometimes nah

The older I get, the more inflected my English. It's a hobby. Carradice Barley saddlebag did the trick. I was carrying a very small synthetic 'ping bag, a thermarest, half a kilo of oat bran and half a kilo of prunes (they're way jucier than dried apricots, but very sticky). The only unneccesary extras were (in retrospect) a small pair of binoculars which I "used" once, and a Minox camera tripod (ditto). I didn't really need the thermarest, either. For these long solo trips I'm quite prepared to ride another hour or two to find shelter, and don't mind riding and night and sleeping by day when it's warm.

Waiouru to Hamilton via the west coast

I took a week off work to do a big ride. I wanted to end up in Hamilton, as I was overdue for a visit, and found an opportunity to ride the desert road, which I've wanted to do for a while now.

Here's the route:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=14999473811989668122,-38.475094,174.637127%3B14063582621650940356,-38.210669,175.147820%3B14153346181315706832,-38.165065,175.358276&saddr=Waiouru,+Manawatu-Wanganui,+New+Zealand&daddr=turangi+to:taumarunui+to:ohura+to:Mokau,+Waikato,+New+Zealand+to:Waikawau+Rd+%40-38.477500,+174.639440+to:waikawau+to:marokopa+to:te+anga+to:waitomo+caves+to:Waitomo+Valley+Rd+%40-38.210570,+175.147790+to:otorohanga+to:mangaorongo+to:Whibley+Rd+%40-38.165250,+175.358720+to:korakonui+to:parawera+to:puahue+to:rotoorangi+to:Cambridge,+Waikato,+New+Zealand+to:matangi+to:893+Heaphy+Terrace,+Claudelands,+Waikato+3214,+New+Zealand&mrcr=19&mra=pi&dirflg=h&sll=-37.799747,175.370979&sspn=0.09861,0.159645&ie=UTF8&ll=-38.285625,175.253906&spn=3.134595,5.108643&t=h&z=8&om=1

I did 180 Km on the first day, starting at midnight in Waiouru (koz that's when the night bus arrives). Conditions were favourable - 6 degrees, light southerly winds - so I set off right away. Traffic at that time of night is almost entirely large trucks, which are predictable and highly visible. Easier to handle than carloads of skiers, who invariably take the west road round the mountain.

I was going for endurance (read: fat burning) not speed, so I croze through the night and arrived at Turangi at dawn.

I crashed out for an hour near Kuratau once the sun had come up, then continued west to Taumarunui. Had anohter sleep around midday, then anohter 6 hours to Ohura. I learned when I gto there that I'd have been better off taking the north road, which is flatter. Never mind.

I arrived at John's place at dusk, just in time for the hangi-in-a-keg which had just been taken out of its baskets. Yum! I felt pretty good. 180 Km in 18 hours, a personal best for time on the bike and distance travelled. I'm sure I can do 200 Km and 24 hours, so that's my next big ride objective. Starting at night helps, mentally at least.

I spent Sunday crashed out in a house truck, chatting with John and thinking about the next leg of the ride.

The Black Holdsworth

A couple of weeks ago I scored a nice Holdsworth from TradeMe - same guy I bought the RRA from, in fact (thanks Steve! Keep 'em coming:)

It's almost identical to the Gillot - same tubeset so identical sizing, same lugs. It has pump pegs, the Gillot doesn't. The Gillot has rear rack bosses; the Holdsworth does not. They have nice hand-painted detailing at the top of the seat stays, same same but different. Presumably made in the same factory aroudn the same time and painted (or at least had it lugs detailed) by the same person. The Gillot has a metal head badge; the Holdsworth a sticker.

The Holdsworth had the usual problem of bikes of this age, namely a bent bottom bracket axle. Out comes the old Stronglight, in goes the Shimano UN53. Out comes the back wheel and in goes the new Sturmey-Archer 8 speed hub. It's very nice - will still need some tweaking, however. I haven't yet found a suitable place to mount the rotary shifter and it won't change into the higher gears reiably - presume there's too much cable tension. And it needs a new Nitto Technomic stem, like all bikes which run moustache bars.

So now I have two matched pairs of road bikes which fit me. Joy! It's like having four pairs of shoes in slightly different colours. I can choose which bike to ride based on what I'm wearing, how I'm feeling, the weather, anything. Choice as liberation:)

The Holdsworth is cool but it's not read to tour on yet. (Apart from anything else it needs a headset job koz it won't ride no-hands). For my next tour, the Gillot fixie is the steed of choice - stay toon'd for more updates. It's Waiouru to Hamilton via the west coast. Moihaha!