Chris who never needs an alarm had to be woken by my two riding companions this morniing! It was 5:17 AM and they ended up having to shake my tent and call my name before I responded! Unheard of normally!!!
Anyhow after a very apolgetic start to the day, a very quick pack up while having breakfast were were underway a bit later than originally planned.
First up was a reasonable hill and then we had the first of many downhills for the day.
Our route had us locate a very nice crater lake however as it was off the official route we backtracked and continued on our way on a lovely cycle trail through the bush before popping out on the main highway to Murupara from Rotorua - after some more shingle roads we had a short ride on S H Way 2 before more gravel roads through the forestry.
I must add that a couple of days back we had a yearling stag come out on the road in front of us before quickly making an exit back in to the bush.
We road through Rerewhakitu (I did a short time on a farm there in 1973 miking cows) and then on East to Tekaha - Well Mongrel Mob red vests appeared to be the attire of choice for some and the dairy we stopped at was very busy with lots of folk comin and going - all the same after a quick ham roll and drink we carried on through Edgcombe to an ice cream stop at a berry farm before Whakatane.
Was pleased to get here and the consensus was that we hire a cabin for the night rather than putting up our tents (an extra $6).
I dropped my gear and headed straight in to town coz I had a tyre malfunction last night when I was trying to put more air in. I managed that however when removing the flexile pump attachement to the valve I managed to remove the valve and all the air from the tyre!!! As I'm running tubless tyres for the life of me I couldn't get them to rebead on the rims with just a small hand pump so Mckayla loaned me her spare tube and I was underway again. (I do carry my own spare tube but it was preferable to use hers on account of the valve situation).
Long story short the local bike shop took it in and made it tubless again so problem overcome.
Afetr a few days on the road you begin to miss fresh food and so the New World supemarket did well out of me and I'm dining on a fresh Italian salad and chilli beans for my dinner along with half a watermelon (small) and fresh fruit.
One doesn't have a lot of spare time on these journeys after sorting out, accommodation, washing (clothes and self) feeding oneself, servicing the bike and planning the route among other things.
And on that note I'll call it a blog for the day.
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