Wakefield
to Lake Rotoroa
The Wakefield Hotel was another Century old lady and a fun
place to stop over at. We helped ourselves to the continental breakfast before
loading the bikes and heading back out on to the “Great Taste Trail” which kept
us off the road right through to Tapawera. It’s a very easy trail to ride and I
would say anyone who can get their leg over a bike would handle it. It offers a
great range of scenery to ride through the added bonus of the 5th
longest ex train tunnel that you can ride through and later on we learnt that
the train line that ran through “Tui” was only the 2nd place in New
Zealand (or it too may have been the World) that had a train station on a bend
in the track! Wow, how special and almost unique are those two train facts?
Being a trail that mostly follows the old train line means
there are no great big hills to encounter and it was mostly an easy gradient.
After riding about 4,000 km on my last set of tyres that
were replaced yesterday I found my bike wandering and a bit wobbly today. I
thought at first it was my luggage seat pak that was not on tight enough, a
feel of this confirmed that was not the problem. I knew then it had to be a puncture!
On new tyres what’s more with less than 100
km under their rubber. Fortunately I’m running tubeless tyres which
means that with most punctures the sealant does its job in blocking the holes
so long as you more air in. I did this a
couple of times on the way to our coffee stop at Tapawera and on checking it
after our coffee stop all was good.
If you ever drive S H Way 6 to or from Nelson then do deviate at Glenhope
(Just past the old original Railway Station out in the paddock on the left when
heading to Nelson) and take the Tadmore Valley Road through to Tapawera. 15 km
of gravel before the seal through a lovely valley tucked off to the side of S H
Way 6. You will be surprised at what a lovely little valley it is that you have
driven through.
As happens with these journeys you make friends with a range
of people and today we were riding at about the same pace as a couple of women
(Janet and Sally - the “pink ladies”) – they are riding in support of breast
cancer.
At the Glenhope intersection with S H Way 6 we turned right
and that’s when I dug deep got the bike in to high gear and pedalled like hell –
the quicker one is off a State Highway the safer one feels. There was a reasonable
shoulder however the big trucks at 90 kph push and drag a lot of air with them
and you need to be ready for the “after shock” once they are past. As bad as
having to deal the those physical aspects of the traffic is the endless noise
pollution that comes with each of those big trucks as they rattle and clatter
along the way. The positive aspect of this though is that once off those roads each
day you get to appreciate the “quiet” of the countryside.
Here we are at a quant old traditional bach that has been in
the family for 60 years that now offers dinner, bed and breakfast to us TA
riders.
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