Being able to ride around Kahutara Point was one of the main extra things that convinced me to spend the whole weekend around Mahia. So the riding schedule for the weekend was dictated by one suitably-timed low tide. The hour from sunrise took me east across the top of the peninsula, as I watched the sun come up over the still estuary and Pacific.
Decidedly unshabby resting spot.
Tide was assuredly out, this boded well.
An hour in, I turned off the “main” road (no traffic at that time of a Sunday) for a short section of gravel before a locked, barbed gate and threatening signs. Spying an actual living person, I easily got permission to ride the short section of private land to the beach. The riding was reasonably hard-packed sand – not quite as fast as Blackhead Beach the week before – and a little bit of flat rock slab where the intertidal zone couldn’t be avoided. Stunning morning to be riding with the sun and breeze behind me.
Unusual sounds snapped me out of my reverie; I realised I was passing a very large seal colony waking on the dunes to my right. The ten kilometres to Wainuiorangi Road was over in just less than an hour, and only had one kilometre of pushing and short carries around a rocky point. I decided to continue along the beach to see just how far the paper road was rideable.
By nine o’clock it was well too hot for gloves and a helmet. What is this winter madness?
Halfway along this stretch, I decided no one would thank me for this rough going – and I was well aware there may be no other way out. So with the tide advancing, I retreated to the road up onto the main road along the ridge.
Briefly the actual road diverted from the paper road, I managed to get across this stretch of private land without reaching for some koha.
There began thirty kilometres of ridge riding – first getting up 350 metres above the sea, and then riding all the undulations. Great fun, mostly gravel – but with some seal on the steepest parts. The wind was starting to get up, and seemed to be coming across Hawke Bay into me. I saw no traffic, admired the varied views (sheep country, native bush, plantation forest, the Pacific and the bay) and came around a corner to see a few cattle grazing the roadside. After some kilometres I reached the farm buildings and gates. With the wind continuing to strengthen and my way barred, it was time to turn and head back.
Have I mentioned I quite liked the ridge riding – Pacific on one side, Hawke Bay on the other?
Portland Island.
Looking down to Rocket Lab’s launch site.
Apart from being blown off my bike, just the once, when riding out of the shelter of a cutting, the return to town was quite straight forward. Back for a late lunch after a most excellent half-day’s riding, the only disappointment was how the road just ends at gates with no views of the beauty one knows is just there. How to end my route fittingly is proving to be a bit of a conundrum.