Rotoroa to Springs

 A cool start to the ride and a while before the sun hit the valley we were riding out of. I did though wear my merino top under my shirt and it worked well. There was a reasonable climb from the Lake and then a good downhill all the way in to Murchison that made the K’s click by relatively fast.

A coffee stop at Murch and I decided to push on ahead as the advance party to get the bach up and running for when the  others arrived. There were not many stops except one at the top of the Maruia Saddle to take the control point photo and this year some good thinking and kind soul had gone to a lot of trouble to carve a sign letting all TA’rs know they had crested the major hill for the day.

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Along the way I heard and saw that there was a leak in Byron’s water supply down by the road and made a mental note to call him later and let him know. A few K’s down the road a Ute pulled off the road behind me to access a farm paddock and when I around I saw it was Byron so I did a “U” turn to have a chat with him and also let him know about his water issue.

Next stop was at Kathleen’s as she had been kind enough to take an online order for some food for us to take on to the bach, then it was in to the Café for a Milkshake before the last 7 km to the bach.

All looked in order when I got to the bach and so it was a quick grab of the water intake clearing grubber and on with the gumboots to shoot off up to the water supply inlet to clear that after the last flood. Now that I had water it was safe to light the coal range to begin to make some hot water for our showers.

Rob an Ruth rolled in a wee while later and we de-bagged the bikes and got ourselves settled for the night. Dinner was organised and showers were had.

I took a walk down to my plum tree to see if there was any evidence of what happened to the plums I had seen developing before I took off. Not at all thinking I would see any plums. I was more than pleasantly surprised to see for the first time ever my plum tree absolutely loaded with fruit and they were ready to eat! We had stewed plums with our museli and some of the neighbours  invited to come and help themselves.

Friday has been a “Lay” day and the first time we haven’t been on our bikes since leaving Cape Reinga. It’s been quite good just chilling here at the bach and gave us time to service the bikes and also organise our accommodation right the way through to Bluff. So, now we are committed to our schedule unless we want the hassle of reworking it all once again. Here in New Zealand organising accommodation at suitable intervals along the while on the road is never as easy as it is in Europe I have found. Our booking systems do not work as well and there is not the range nor volume of choices available. So far our digs for  the night have ranged from $22 per night (Hotel Waterloo Backpakers Wellington) through to $95 at a self contained homestay unit in Martinborough. It be interesting to see what it averages out at.

Again poor internet reception (this time at my own bach) means this post may well be late and not have any photos to start with.