Missed a muster

Taumarunui to Whakahoro

65.9km

A relatively long but easy day today, with only one major climb. We departed Taumarunui's Forgotten World motel dead on 9AM, shortly after Graham and Lloyd, who may be thinking we're stalking them. We'd arrived yesterday just as they were moving their bikes to the 'boat shed' (actually a garage space used to house Forgotten World Adventures' jet-boat) and Lloyd kindly offered to wash down our bikes. This was at 5:30, as the reception was preparing to close at 6. Marg quickly organised access to the laundry and put on a load of washing, with the promise that the laundry would not be locked until it finished. Wrong! Marg had to roust up the out-of-hours contact, who entrusted her with the keysafe code. The upside was they neglected to charge us for it. The tent and fly was hung from the balcony and it was so hot and sunny that they dried almost instantly.

Leaving Taumarunui on Morero Terrace, we had our first encounter with the mighty Whanganui River, crossing to the true left bank as it burbled under the bridge. 11km of undulating seal with a light tailwind made for rapid progress, away from the city into hard-core sheep country. The seal turned to gravel, with a warning that there was a 6m length restriction 9km up the road. Heck, that would only just permit our campervan, so low risk of encountering any big trucks, we thought. The flaw in that logic will be highlighted later...

Along the way we passed a farmer mustering his sheep from the hills, and a bit further on we found a guy sitting in a parked side-by-side, waiting to ensure that when the mob arrived it didn't just continue on down the road past the designated paddock. Lucky escape, we thought. That thought recurred as we passed a farmer just closing a gate behind another big mob.

Hikumutu road continued to climb, and we were passed by two guys (brothers we later found out) planning to go beyond Whakahoro and camp, but be on the same boat as us to Pipiriki. We caught up with them soon after, as they paused to admire an ostrich putting on a show just across its fence. On the final steep ascent we again encountered one of them (cyclist, not ostrich) taking a well deserved breather. Marg of course engaged him in a prolonged conversation, such that when we later met the other he said 'i wondered where my brother had got to...'. This was just below the summit of the climb, where there was an ongoing logging operation, with a stack of logs ready to load and head down the road and out at its other end... Durr... Just to rub it in, as we were about to set off down the hill toward the Owhango junction, a huge tipper truck ground up the hill ready to load up. So we spent the next 4km or so looking for a truck coming round the next corner.

From the junction it was another short climb to some brilliant views, including a distant glimpse of Ruapehu and its neighbours. We stopped for our usual break at 30km, just short of a driveway to a farmhouse. As often seems to happen to us, while we were stopped a vehicle emerged from the driveway, but it merely trundled 100m or so then pulled off the road. We moved on, and as we came toward the parked vehicle, a gate opened and a huge mob of newly crutched sheep poured out onto the road ahead of us. I expected them to be followed by the dogs and/or humans we'd seen disappearing into the woolshed, but we never saw a sign of them. Which meant we were in for a long haul, working our way slowly through the mob. It was 1.4km before I passed the last one, and a good 3km before we saw an open gate!

We were following the Kawautahi stream  to its confluence with the Retaruke River, and at cycling speed got a great view of some quite picturesque waterfalls in its lower reaches. Then we were onto Oio Road and the final leg to Whakahoro, where the Retaruke joins the Whanganui. The Retaruke itself has cut some spectacular cliffs and gorges through the soft grey papa.

And on to Blue Duck Station, and a brief reunion with Ken as he worked on the owners' house, and a visit to Sandy at her work-week quarters on the other side of the Retaruke. We visited the cafe to pay for our accommodation, then adjourned to Forest House to clean up, pack for the next day, and relax with Ken for a while before preparing dinner in time for Sandy to finish dinner service at the cafe.

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