After having some coffee/tea and muesli in our cabin at Makoura, we coasted down the sweeping bends to the river level below, and then began the first big climb of the day. We were on gravel roads for about half the day, and so I deflated our tires to about 20 PSI before leaving to give us some more cushion and tire footprint on the looser surfaces. Makes it so much easier! Today’s ride is mostly downhill, but still had about 3,000 feet of climbing along the 43 miles we pedaled today. It all looked so easy looking at the chart, but it was anything but easy in the end.
The views were amazing along the way. We were paralleled the river down to Palmerston North, but staying above it a good deal of the time and getting panoramic views of the river valley/gorge below. It was really gorgeous.
Somewhere along the day, our friends Royce and Todd caught up with us. We met them at the cabins at Matahiwi. They are stronger than us, riding in 2 days what we ride in 3. They took a day of rest in Whanganui but quickly caught up to us the following day.
We were all planning on staying the night in Palmerston North and planned to have dinner together. A few miles later we ran into them again, as Todd’s bike had a dérailleur issue that I was able to fix for them. Beer earned!
As the day progressed, the wind shifted and strengthened to being first a gusty sidewind to then becoming a straight-on headwind of significant force for the last 10-12 miles. The road was busy with lots of traffic and trucks and so we were happy when we turned off to join a bike path that led us all the way to our lodging at the Holiday Park. We got a really nice, new cabin there instead of setting up our tent, which was only NZ$79/night which is less than US$50. A bargain and we are staying 2 nights since we both need a rest.
Todd and Royce are pushing on, as they have a tighter schedule than us to get to the bottom and they are certainly stronger.
After showering and changing, we met them at an Irish pub, enjoyed a few beers and I ordered bangers and mash, one of my favorite pub meals. God, that was good! I neglected to take a picture of Chris’ salad, since my attention was clearly on my meal!
We’ll do laundry and just laze around tomorrow before heading towards Wellington, which we should get to in about 4 days? We’ll see how it goes.
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