North Island. Done and dusted.
So far I've ridden 3,678 km and biked up 42,671 meters in the 47 days I've been on the bike. That's an average 78 km and 908 meters each day. The shortest day 28 km and the longest 129 km.
Here we are in our Capital City and this evening we found it so hard to find a restaurant that was open! We walked almost to Cuba Street from our Backpacker Waterloo Hotel opposite the Railway Station. I did think of pitching the tent up on our front lawn (that's the grass in front of our house - "The Peoples House" but the security chap there said that Jacinda has said I'm not allowed to coz at present they are trying to get some new grass to grow after the last lot of campers toddled off.
Would you believe that this Waterloo Hotel is the same place the Government put me up in 43 years ago and AMP 37 years ago! Not much has changed. It doesn't seem as flash and the price has probably gone down - yes down. My bed in the four person dorm was the grand sum of $22! I've had motor camps that have charged me more for a pup tent site. It's also very handy to the Bluebridge Ferry which is just across the road.
Coming down off the Rimutaka Incline my bike began to make a strange "creaking" noise so when we stopped for a peanut butter and jam sandwich I lubed the chain just in case that was the problem (it wasn't). So we diverted off the Hutt River Trail in to Lower Hutt where the mechanic at Evo Cycles was really helpful and a bit of a undo and redo of the crank bolts and grease may have solved the problem, On the run in to Wellington it seeemed to not be creaking - tomorrows ride will tell.
I do not look at the weather forecast as there is nothing I can do to alter or change the weather - of course I can dress appropriately once any weather presents itself. Wellington of course is known for its wind and we were warned that a Southerly would be blowing on Sunday. Well we left Martinborough with very little wind and in fact rather than a head wind we had a tail for some of the ride. Towards Lower Hutt it began to pick up and once we left Petone we were pedalling right in to a good headwind. It was fresh and strong but certainly there was no sea spray blowing across the rail line and on to our cycleway beside the motorway. No complaints. On another occasion we could have been pushing all day in to a headwind.
22 years ago when I rode to Masterton I rode down the Remutaka Incline and this time I rode up it. It follows the old railway line (only one of three in the world like it) at such a steep gradient that the special locomotoives had a third central rail to help them pull the loads up the hill. The strange thing is all the information boards and the like talk about this as part of our country's history. Which it is. The unsettling thing being that this feat of engineering was still operational until 1955! Now that's in my lifetime.
Geez I must be old when I begin to see these things and know the era they are writing about.
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