A strong head wind greeted us as we headed off up beside the Haast River on our way to Lake Hawea. Fortunately after about 10 km's the wind abated and as per the previous days the weather was great for riding. It is a steady uphill for about 50 km and then you hit the steep 300 meter climb up the Haast Pass before a reprieve before another 100 meter climb.
Having been told the Makarora Cafe was open buoyed us along as we at least knew there would be food and drink (milkshake). Sadly the closed sign was hanging on the door so it was our own water and the food we had on board that we ate while sitting on their chairs.
The stand out for today has to be the following:
At the confluence of the Haast and Landsborough Rivers I noticed a 4x4 pull off the road with a jet boat behind so I thought it was time to have a quick chat thinking that are they would have been a couple of hunters. They said no hunting today as they out with a group of other jet boaters' for a looksie. He was from North Canterbury and we chatted some more and I told them about why it was they were seeing all the cyclists they have (Cape Reinga to Bluff)... It was then the other chap who was a mate of the bloke with boat spoke up and said he knows all about it. He is a farmer from the Waimai Valley (West Coast North Island up from Raglan and down from Port Waikato). He then says he had one of those guys stop on the side of the road at his farm a few weeks back and he was riding up to the Cape to do it - he gave him some plums from his orchard.
I said "Mate, that was me"!!!
What a chance meeting that was - we had a good old laugh about it.
The rest of the day in the 20 - 24 degree heat was a case of hills and more hills all in all a reasonably tough day. But it could have been so much more of a challenge had the headwind continued all through the day and even more of a challenge for those who have had to contend with West Coast rain at the same time. But we had none of those challenges.
No comments:
Post a Comment