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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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:)
