Concerned citizens (twice)
Whanganui/Wanganui (etc.) to Hunterville
62.5km
Today was all on two-lane blacktop, as the Americans would have it. Of the 20 or so vehicles that passed us, 7 were motorcycles, and two were trucks. Though the larger of them passed us twice, or four times if you count when it was going the other way... And the drivers could not have been more courteous (well, one could but let's focus on the rule not the exception).
But back to the beginning. From our accommodation we were straight onto the shared path fronting the river along Somme Parade. A brief pause to photograph the pencil sculpture (and wonder if Staedler knew about the breach of copyright) and on past a few morning strollers. A polite ding on the bell, move to the right, ride slowly past, no drama. Until I passed a woman jogging, who I heard go down like a sack of spuds a couple of seconds after I'd passed. Marg was behind, and also couldn't work out what happened, though she is threatening to tell everyone I knocked over a runner. Best we could work out, she stepped unnecessarily to the left and dropped her foot off the edge of the concrete path. Marg pulled up, I wheeled back, out came the first-aid kit and time to assess the damage. She was obviously shaken up, and had a scrape on her nose, but was adamant she'd not bashed her head. Pupils normal, no dizziness, headache or immediate memory issues, so alright there. A grazed elbow seemed to be the only other injury. She said she'd call her husband to pick her up, and walked off to find a shady spot to wait. We packed up our stuff, then followed along. By the time we rejoined her, one knee had a swelling the size of a golf ball, and the other was catching up fast. She still insisted she was OK, but couldn't reach her husband, so would walk the couple of blocks to work. At the hospital. Where she's a nurse... She flat refused Marg's offer to accompany her. I've heard it said medics are the worst patients. Just saying.
So on, over the river, to the easiest 66m climb on the whole TA. Straight up, in the Durie Hill elevator. The views from the top are amazing. We could pick out Ruapehu (again, and not for the last time) but Taranaki again was absent. Control point photo taken, it was back on the bikes, left, right, and right again onto Portal Street
, which we would follow through several changes of name almost all the way to Hunterville.
The scenery was, as ever, stunning. Very different from further North of course. Leaving Wanganui we were crossing a flat plain, pocked with dairy farms, long straights and gentle undulations, until suddenly emerging onto an overlook. Spread out before us was a different landscape of sharply sculpted steep valleys, interspersed with fertile flats divided into checker board fields. Back on the road, an exhilarating, winding descent, and we were cycling amidst it.
Then began the slow ascent up those sculpted valleys toward today's destination. As usual we were taking a break every 5km, to rest our (now saddle hardened) butts, and ingest food and drink. At one such break, in the shade of a small pine plantation, a small blue car passed on the other side of the road. I thought I saw a flash of a wave from the driver, so I gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. Just after we set set off again, the same blue car slowed alongside us, and the driver, an archetypal silver-haired grandmother type, said 'I just came back to make sure you weren't in trouble and in need of some help.' reassured we were fine, she turned around and headed off in her original direction. Wonderful!
It was on the stiff climb up the valley just after this stop that we first encountered the first big truck, the driver creeping up the hill behind us for several hundred metres until he was sure he could use the whole road to pass.
We planned to stop for lunch at the Sutherland Puriri Reserve, where our instructions promised a picnic area 'across a rickety bridge'. Sounded lovely but all we found was a gate into a dank forest, with a sign noting that further into the bush there was a sign detailing the various tracks and features. Now, why not just put that other sign at the entrance? So we continued on uphill, and shortly found a field gate, up a grassy bank from the road, to lean our backs against and soak up the views and the warm sunshine.
From here on it was a steady, undulating, fairly easy climb for nearly 10km, during which the same truck passed once more in each direction, before a final steep rise and equally rapid descent to the Ongo Road junction. At this point, I asked Marg about the profile, and was told it was downhill into Hunterville. True. But not yet... We ground our way up another 100m or so in the next few km, climbing up the narrow, wooded (and picturesque) valley. Our second truck came up behind, slowed right down until we both pulled off to the side, and with a friendly toot-toot passed us very carefully. And finally down into Hunterville, carefully across SH1, and then a bridge, and the the main trunk railway. This sweeps through town in a big arc: the Station Hotel seems to be the centre of that arc... The railway was very active, right through the night. I think there's both a passing loop, and a waypoint where additional locos are added or removed. We arrived just before 4PM, but I forgot to stop Relive until after we'd settled in and gone to the store.
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