This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Taihape-Napier Cycle Trip — 20 to 22 February by Hans Wiskerke
Punters: Katja Riedel, Nicole Hoy, Rita Quill, Mika Verheul, Stuart Douce, Stuart Palmer, Hans Wiskerke
Weeks before, when the Wellington weather was still nice, warm and predictable and all were in a good January summertime mood, they had written down their names on one of these trip sheets - you probably know them, those funny coloured papers inviting you to pencil down your name. Some emails later a logistically daunting schedule was made including two cars, seven bikes, some bike racks, about 20 paniers and bags, and seven people. The latter were divided in East2West and West2East, all hoping to meet up at DOC’s Kuripapango campsite halfway Napier and Taihape on Saturday late afternoon.
Off we drove with the four West2Easters comfortably seated in Stuart’s dustbowl, the headlights slightly upward showing an overcast sky. The Metservice guys had promised us some rain, so we were not surprised to see some drizzle on the windscreen. Bulls appeared in sight and a nice curry was found, sky cleared and a bit further we found our campsite. Not wanting to set up a tent on a soggy soil late at night we had opted for a hostel, and apart from the caretaker and some half(?)-drunk company looking for Caameroooooon long after midnight, it was dry, spacious and comfy.
With the waterbottles filled and some extra biker’s fuel from the New World we set off under a sunny sky with a light tailwind towards Napier. Sealed road in a built-up area at first, gradually changing into a scenery of rolling hills, pleasant downhills to rivers and bloody hot uphills to beautiful vistas of...yet another hill. During the day secret weapons like powder sachets appeared (mixed with water), shirts were soaked in the river before another climb, and Sunday’s breakfast yoghurt became Saturday’s late lunch. The T-N road formerly used to be largely unsealed, but many shovels, trucks and pile of gravels indicated that it won’t last for long. On our trip some 50 km were gravel, sometimes smooth but a few times an eager cyclist decided to suddenly put a foot or knee on the ground — nothing serious!
Towards the end of the afternoon we approached another downhill, noted a sign for the campsite (another 2km) and found a nice spot on the large, empty DOC-campsite. The wheelchair-accessible toilet was hugely appreciated, and after a dip in the river we felt all fresh, clean and hungry. Team East2West however did not show up, and wild theories were developed on how they had conned us into handing out our van - probably now repainted to be a Wicked one. Only after dinner (rather gourmet, with salmon, tortelini, homegrown courgette and some apple slice as dessert) was ready at 8PM we saw one of the Stuarts coming out of the wood, explaining they had found a good spot just a bit further down near the river, and after changing codewords and car-keys with Katja we spent some more time sitting outside under a starry sky — a perfect summer day.
Cycling day 2 started a bit later for us than for the other team — they passed our tents while we were still doing stretching exercises, or plainly sleeping. The road towards Napier was a bit gentler than the first day of this Gentle Annie, and quite soon we hit tarmac road. Some 500 vertical metres separated us from the van, and fast downhill bits gave just enough momentum to creep up the next slope. With Fast Rita and Flying Dutchman changing’ positions at the front, the sensible people enjoyed the scenery at a more moderate pace. Early afternoon we found the van still un-wicked, but spacious enough to cater for 4 bikes and gear, stopped at the first cafe for a late breakfast / early beer, and headed South towards Welly where the sun was hiding above the long white clouds.
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