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bikes, friends, MTB, NZ

An early long weekend & a new bike

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Excited enough to be going back down to Rotorua for a three-day stay, it just got better when I became the relief supervisor at work (meaning I now cover the leave of the other supervisors), got off my regular shift & somehow landed an eight day weekend. Even better, I was able to spend each of those eight days riding!

Arriving Thursday a fortnight ago, I couldn’t be bothered waiting for Luke to get home from work so set off for a short ride while he turned up. Much to my disbelief I got caught in a torrential downpour halfway around the Haro & started sliding all around the place. Since I was already pretty wet (soaked through really), there was only the option of carrying on & sliding & swimming my way down the Grinder (rather interesting when you can’t see a lot) and around the Diamondback. I was somewhat pertubed to see that the gully in Diamondback has been smoothed out, never mind – more speed. Back at Luke’s house, the sun was out again but I still had to wash off with the hose – when Luke finally arrived home, I inadvertently managed to buy a brand new GT Peace fully-rigid singlespeed (that he just happened to have lying around) off him. I am still not completely sure how that happened, but I finally have a singlespeed – even if I wasn’t really look for one – & it is great.

So the week continued in a similar vein – a lot of riding. Taking the Peace out for its first ride, it wasn’t raining so much, but I still got saturated from the mud & puddles. After that ride the rest of the week was perfect riding weather – not too hot, not windy, not raining & trails in great condition. Getting back to the Peace – my first ride on a singlespeed was around the Long Mile – A-Trail – Tickler – Rude & Exit loop. I survived & loved it. I think the shock of a lack of shocks was more to adjust to than just the one gear – it must be over five years since I have ridden a fully rigid bike off road (the ever trusty Hardrock that I got in third form). One gear is quite manageable & oh so quiet. Wasn’t so game to take that dropoff in the Tickler – but that came a couple of days later; one small spill sideways on the Exit from getting stuck in a rut just before the overhanging tree. It is also so much easier to clean than a full suspension rig!

So without going in to too much more detail, the highlights of the rest of the week were riding at Craters of the Moon, Taupo, for the first time in a year – the new trails Mr & Mrs and Better Than P had me grinning & laughing all the way down; riding with Te Puke mates & managing to get the single speed up the steep road to Gunna Gotta; getting confused & crossing over between Corners & the jump track – first time on these trails; and riding all of the trails worth riding. Off the bike it was great to spend time at the lake with Terry & Bronny and catch up with Andrew & Kate – more great hospitality. Also, caught African Odyssey at the Basement Cinema – which I very much enjoyed – the handycam diary of four guys in their twenties from Whakatane who decided it would be a good adventure to ride from Cape Town to London (straight up Africa to Cairo, across to Tunis, ferry to Italy) on their clapped out 250cc motorbikes.

After that great week, it was two day shifts at work (bit of a shock getting up at 0430 after a week of lying in!) & then two great rides down the Luck At Last track just out of Whangamata. The first was particularly good as it rained a lot beforehand and the track was pine-needled, muddy, sliding goodness. By Labour Day the track had dried out quite a bit and we must have been a bit jaded. Now just to wait for my new MacBook to turn up…

around home, bikes, family, friends, MTB, NZ

Wires Rd hike-a-bike

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I couldn’t stay at home for a complete set of days-off two weeks in a row, so Monday I packed up the bike & a few other things & went out for my first ride around the Farm Loop at Hunua in three months. As expected, after all the rain in the recent months & general Hunua conditions (it’s not a water catchment area for nothing) it was pretty slippy & bits of the track had changed slightly (not to mention an extension I hadn’t done before). Due to general lack of riding & being by myself (although I was surprised to see three other groups of riders out there on a Monday afternoon) it was a pretty cruisy ride, but I loved getting back in to the slightly more technical single track – & the Challenge Downhill is always a bit of fun. As always, saw a few wild pheasants.

For a change from Hunua, I ducked out to SH2 (it’s always nice to be on roads I’ve never been on before – even if they are close to home) & headed off to stay with Betsy & Paul (Aunt & Uncle) as they have recently moved close to Thames. Good to catch up & sit through another sitting of UK & Europe photos & see their new place. Leaving early enough for a day off, next stop was Maratoto (home of the Maratoto Challenge – which I think of as a mini-Karapoti) & the Wires Rd track – just north of Paeroa. It must be about three years since about six or seven of us did part of this track (back when I wasn’t on shift & had a social life) from the Whangamata side. Short history is that the track goes over the ranges from Maratoto to Whangamata sort following the old telegraph wires that had to be put through during the Land War. Anyway, this time I was attacking it from the west side & it just happens that one of the guys on my shift at work lives close by so I dropped in for a visit. Interesting to see the earthen-walled house that Tim is building & the small wind & hydro turbines that he has installed around his 90 acres of bush & grazing block that has great views down the valley.

Somehow, Tim was persuaded to come on the ride up the Wires – it’s always good to have a bit of local knowledge. It turned out just as well, as the ride that Tim had in mind for me was nothing like the one I had initially envisaged. Our ride started off in the cloud down the road for a while before we got to Wires Rd, with Tim filling me on recent local history & meeting a couple of locals along the way for a chat – & Tyler the dog trying to keep up. It wasn’t long before we slowed significantly as we hit the up hill for two hours & Tyler was constantly waiting for us. Being maintained by a 4WD club the track was nice & wide & mostly-comfortably rideable in the middle chainring – although I did have one impressive fall trying to tackle a two-stage steep incline of smooth rock. I got up the first bit ok, ran out of momentum halfway up the second, realised disaster was creeping up on me & unclipped one foot & tried a dismount. After a few seconds of hopping around on one foot, but still on the saddle I was over backwards leaving an amused Tim to come around the corner to find me lying on my back!

Eventually we reached the ridge & it was the normal up & down with some nice rocky downhills to keep me interested & a few stream crossings.

We eventually reached the Loop Track, which must have been what we did three years ago – but nothing really looked familiar. Anywho, Tim had other ideas – the Waipaheke Motorbike Track. This apparently used to be part of a much longer Maratoto Challenge, but was taken out because it was so hard (it was done in the reverse direction to the way were going), they couldn’t get enough crazy people to do it. We found the track easily enough & there was some conjecture of which peaks we were actually going to go around – by now the sun was out nicely & we had some decent views occasionally. In the end that didn’t really matter as we spent most of the next hour an a half looking at the track as we pushed our bike along. Since Tim had last been along here a few years ago, the region has had some massive deluges & the track was now severely rutted & overgrown. We battled on & the rest/food stops became a bit more frequent. Eventually we reached the saddle were rewarded with some good views of the ranges & all the way down to Whangamata.

Unfortunately, the first half hour or so of the downhill the bikes were mostly pushed as it was very steep & very rocky. I did get some nice bits of riding in at times – big rocks strewn around the track always make things challenging & I tended to bounce around all over the track. My enthusiasm only landed on the ground once – who knows what really happened there? The size of the some of the slips that had carried the track away were quite impressive, even if it did mean more carrying. Eventually, & to my immense relief, the track became more & more rideable & as it had been previously used by motorbikes, a lot of the corners were very nicely bermed & great fun to ride. Plenty of stream crossing & then we were down following & crossing the river – it sure got a lot muddier here. Five hours after setting off, we were finally back facing the climb that is Tim’s driveway – what a great ride/push/carry. Rush back home for dinner & now I’m slightly jaded after two pretty quiet night shifts & waiting for the Warriors game tonight.

family, friends, hiking, history, national park, NZ, roadtrip, snow

Northland rain and Waikaremoana sun & snow

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After two long weeks back at work (it was straight in to three night shifts the day after arriving from London – jet lag? Didn’t have a chance.), it was time for another holiday in the apparently miserably wet NZ winter (thankfully I missed most of that!). Adele & two of her friends (Anna & Ben) had flown up to Auckland that day & we managed to fit everyone & everything in the mighty (so to speak) Galant – including three large tramping packs & my bike (of course), you could easily tell that the rear shocks had not been replaced in the seven years I’ve had the car (probably never). Staying the night at Matakohe, we visited the Kauri museum in the morning – mostly for Adele’s benefit as there is a bit of Dad’s family’s history in there, not to mention the restored house of our great-great-grandfather. A stop in Whangarei saw the rest of the car filled with wedding presents & we continued up to Coopers Beach, where Anna had rented us a house for the rest of the week.

Settling in to watch the Olympics on the 14″ television with awful reception, I tried to acquaint myself with Adele’s macbook & mostly enjoyed it – but it still bugs me that there is no easy way to maximise windows (not that I could find anyway). As Thursday dawned reasonably fine, if a little breezy, we hightailed it in to Kaitaia, had a quick look around & met up with a lot of the people involved in the wedding (two of Adele’s med school friends, also a former flatmate, getting married). Eventually our little procession of cars set off to Cape Reinga stopping a lot along the way – to look at flowers on the side of the road, wait for stragglers, change a flat tyre, stop at a service station & so on. Eventually we hit the twenty kilometres of gravel that is the top of SH1 only to find that it wasn’t quite twenty kilometres – sealing of road has started at the top of the country & is working slowly down (apparently so that all the heavy vehicles don’t ruin the recently laid tarseal while going to lay the next section). Obligatory photos at the top of the country in the wind & then off to the sand dunes to have a look – somewhere on that road is part of a rental Corolla’s muffler & a fair chunk of the underbelly of the Galant as we managed to bottom out twice landing in rather large holes in the road. Somehow I found myself at the stag party for someone I didn’t even know six hours previously – for such a low key event, it was surprisingly eventful. Mike got knocked out on Coopers Beach, the cops turned up & then finally (to add injury to insult or injury to injury) Mike went off to A&E with a rather large gash in his heel.

Friday’s weather was utterly miserable, but we were happy to stay inside & read, start a jigsaw, watch the Olympics & generally do sweet buggerall. I did manage to have a phone interview that day – but as I was outside in the car (stuffed cellphone battery) in the middle of a massive thunder storm, I was slightly distracted (not to mention firmly in holiday mode) & was a bit poor at answering questions. About the only thing I did know was what a pivot table was – geek that I am, I had made one that morning while I was still trying to work out the macbook. Saturday dawned a lot better & it was almost warm for the wedding (it definitely wasn’t raining). Sunday, up early for the hike back to Newmarket where we spent much too much on tramping gear – pack, down jacket, gators, shoes, Camelbak… Dropping Ben at the airport, it was back home to Pukekohe for a night of rest & unpacking & repacking for Waikaremoana.

Monday held another big day of driving, via Hamilton to drop Anna at her parents, on to Rotorua to leave valuables at Andrew & Kate’s (I don’t rate the security of my car) & the mission that is the gravel road to Waikaremoana. Adele managed to drive most of that, so it was good to have a break; with the weather closing in, it started to sleet & then snow on us – much to Adele’s surprise (“this is the North Island, it’s not supposed to snow down here”). At the motor camp we decided to change the direction of our walk to start at the flat (ish) end as the forecast wasn’t looking fantastic & so we would have a bit more company than just each other (a German couple – Anna & Thomas – were the only other people we saw for three days). A much better packing of our gear was called for & then it was off to bed with the snow falling outside – this was possibly the coldest night of the trip & we hadn’t even started walking yet.

When we got up on Tuesday morning it wasn’t much warmer & walking to breakfast the snow started falling again. Looking out of the dining room it was quite easy to see the snow settled on the trees not so far away. Well packed & our hut passes changed the four of us loaded our packs on to the water taxi for the ride across the lake to Whanganui hut (we had to start here as there was a impassable landslip blocking the track close to the end). Well rugged up on the back of the boat it wasn’t too cold & the lake was so wonderfully flat I was dreaming of a waterski; however the cloud was still low & I would have taken a lot of persuading & a thick wetsuit to jump in.

Landing, the water taxi took off & left us to ourselves in the middle of nowhere. The sun even managed to come out long enough for me to drag my sunnies out of my pack – & then promptly disappeared. The first morning of the tramp was a mixture of ascending & descending – nothing too high or steep & a mixture of rain and then snow. At this stage we were still quite excited by the sight of snow at such a relatively low altitude in the North Island. Thankfully we didn’t have to walk all the way around one of the peninsulas (not that the track even went that way – but it sure looked like quite a circuitous route) – there is a relatively recent kiwi sanctuary there. Being day time & all we didn’t see a kiwi, but did manage to spy a rather impressive predator fence. For an early lunch we arrived at the brand spanking new Waiharuru Hut (it replaces one that was removed closer to the kiwi sanctuary). It is actually two pretty large buildings – one kitchen & dining, the other thirty odd bunks – a sign of just how popular the track is in the summer; a common remark during trip was how glad we all (all four of us) were to be walking such a beautiful track in the solitude brought on by winter – the place must be teeming in summer. Nice and close to the lake with great views of Panekeri Bluffs & some sunshine by now made for a great lunch stop. We reached our overnight hut (Marauiti) by 2 pm and proceeded to do nothing all afternoon – that’s not quite true, I did nothing much, Adele tried to study. Dinner over & done with we gathered around the gas heater (luxury! – when I was a child we used to have to sleep in a lake) & attempted a game of Who Am I? – Twenty Questions. This proved a bit trickier than normal as ze Germans had little idea of NZ celebrities and we ignorant Kiwis had even less idea about famous Europeans (don’t mention the war, I did once, but I think I got away with it). Sherlock Holmes proved to be the trickiest of the night & Obama the easiest – although we never quite got over Adele thinking his first name was Frank & the game ended slightly after that & it was off to bed at the late hour of 8 o’clock.

After easing in to the tramp with a nice five hour day first up, the plan was for the second day was slightly more ambitious. It was supposed to be eight hours to Panekerie Hut & we wanted to do an hour detour to a waterfall to have a look. Leaving earlyish (nothing compared to starting work at 5 am though) it was more of the walking close to the lake and going up, over & down the odd ridge. By this stage we were beginning to see just how ravaged the bush had been by recent high winds & high rain fall. Still we managed dry feet & enjoyed the brilliant sunshine that was to be with us for the rest of our walking. Lunch in the sun again at a campsite & it was off to the waterfall. Thankfully it was only about twenty-five minutes up the river to the falls – but there was one good crossing over the swollen river using big slippery boulders as stepping stone, aided by a cable strung across the river. We had to stand in the river a couple of times (still dry feet), but thankfully no embarrassing & chilly falls. Quick look at the small falls & it was back to pick our packs up again & carry on.

Beginning to realise it could be quite late & dark by the time we finished, we blitzed the next section to the next hut (another really new one) and from then on it was pretty much (I’ve got one word for you, Kim) vertical. It wasn’t too long before we had climbed long enough to be walking through small patches & then large patches of snow. Round a corner after three hours climbing we were pleasantly surprised to see the hut (we were expecting another hour) & it was packs off & time to admire the wonderful view of the lake & the setting sun. Off to the east the lights of mighty Wairoa started to flicker against the much mightier Pacific. A much quieter night after such a long day – the gas heater was a complete let down; Adele did manage to spend twenty minutes standing outside in the freezing cold balancing on a bench wishing Mum a happy birthday after she found her phone worked up there.

Sun was the order of the day again for our last day – unfortunately, we didn’t feel quite as radiant – Adele sick & my knees aching strangely. Away early with more great views & walking along (more up & down really – the down playing havoc on my weak knees) the bluffs we could really admire the amazingly still lake. Not much more of note except beautiful lunch spot perched on a rock on the edge of the bluff & a slow descent – almost forgot, all the snow that was quite fun to walk through. Still we were nicely early for the water taxi & that gave us (more me really) heaps of time to read the displays about the hydro scheme flowing from the lake – strangely, the lake was lowered five metres (I’m not sure I’ve quite worked that out yet) – and the track – it was built in the ’60s & ’70s by high school students (it probably wouldn’t happen like that nowadays). Back at the motor camp it was straight in to the car for the drive back to Rotorua & then Te Puke. The ninety kilometres of gravel sure made it easy to spot all the ice on the road (c.f. tarmac) – this was despite all the sun; at least icy gravel is not too slippery.

bikes, friends, MTB, national park, roadtrip, travel, UK

The longest ride for a while, for me

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The ride John & Richard took me on may have been the biggest that I had been on since N-Duro 1 almost two months ago – but it was nothing compared to what John (crazy guy that he is) completed a few days later. That is, 300 km+ solo during a 24 hour event – and to top it off on a singlespeed. It makes me tired just thinking about it – or perhaps that is just recovering from the first shift set starting the day after I got back. Either way, I can’t quite face sorting over a thousand photos from the last six weeks in to some sort of highlight package that some one may be able to view some day with out getting completely bored. I’d much rather think about great rides in far off (& warmer) places…

Arriving in Taunton, it was pleasing to see Anna home & not off at work (almost everytime I visited in Mt Maunganui I was left wondering if John actually did have a wife or was just making it up – as Anna always seemed to be at work). Although that didn’t last for long as Anna was soon off for her week of night shifts at the hospital – John & I took off for the a look around the Quantrocks (some hills close by). After following a car with a very flat tyre up the steep road, we discovered our first mistake as three mountain bikers tore past us down a hill – there was still plenty of light at 8.30 & we should have brought our bikes. Instead we wandered around looking across to Wales, finding previously ridden singletrack & John remarking how much faster it was on a bike – oh well, there was always tomorrow. We had to get back home to meet Richard (who I met last year when he came out to visit John in NZ) who was driving down from near Oxford for tomorrow’s ride. There we discovered our second mistake, we didn’t have house keys – off John went to the hospital while Richard & I unloaded & put our bikes together on the side of the street. To set the mountain-biking tone we watched The Collective’s Seasons – great. I think I like mountain biking movies more when there is a small chance I could see myself riding the same trails without certain death being involved somewhere. Obviously, my life is just not all about big air.

A reasonably undisturbed sleep (except waking up at about 5.00 thinking I was at the beach thanks to the loud but geographically challenged seagulls – we were no where near the beach) & another cooked breakfast later, we were off to Minehead & Exmoor National Park. A little bit of road riding through the seaside town took us the quaint little village of Dunster; from there we were on to bridleways (quite steep climb to start with) and then riding along the top of a ridge. As John & Richard pointed out where we were going, I couldn’t help thinking that it was an awful long way off & much further than I had ridden for a while. Just as well that the weather was a lot better than what they described last time – consequently, the icebreaker came off fairly early & the jacket stayed firmly (metaphorically speaking, that it could work its way out is never far from my mind) on the Camelbak. It sure is fun riding in different places – contrasting with my normal NZ riding, I could see a lot further, it was generally rockier & more attention was paid to wear the front wheel was going between those rocks.

After a bit of ridge riding, it was down to the small village of Wootton Courtenay via a nice long chute that was filled with rocks & at these nice big corners that were naturally bermed. The rocks reminded me a bit of the 6 km downhill I went down in Pokhara, Nepal – only this time I was hoping that I wasn’t going to go over the bars & split my chin open near the bottom. While I managed to avoid the endover, I did puncture a hundred metres from the end (it’s always strangely satisfying to have a mechanical problem at the end of a sweet bit of track, as opposed to the start). This was a good spot for lunch & the necessary tube replacement.

Crossing through the village it was back to the bridleway, up on top of another ridge, along the ridge & we got to a point where the guys weren’t sure which was the best way down. Thankfully, they chose a sweet descent & all smiles, we arrived at the turnaround point – Porlock (although the return was slightly more direct). It was off down some sealed lanes for a while to Bossington Green (nice steep climb here). On the way we had a photo stop as it looked English.

After John made us ride through that stream for the photos, I had great delight in riding up behind much too fast & soaking him – of course, I had rather wet socks too, but it was worth it. Especially considering how far behind I was up the next hill. Just as well riding back along the moors towards Minehead there was one nice long fast downhill. And that was about the ride. Back to Taunton, where Andy (who I also met & rode with when he was out visiting & touring NZ last year) turned up for dinner (well cooked by John) & we settled down to watch Seasons again – I think I enjoyed it more that time, possibly because I’d just been out for a great ride.