The weekend before Christmas, Pete M came down to Wellington and we headed out for 5 days, intending to intersect with Kate at campsites. The Skyline from Karori to Johnsonville was a retrospectively easy (if typically windy) taste of things to come. As we rolled through Newlands suburbia, we were distracted by a dairy and I took the chance to ring Richard and get him to drop forgotten chain lube to Kate. Wrapping up a tough week (and year) at work had not having been conducive to good packing. This was our only resupply opportunity today; amazing given the route’s urban proximity. But we were both carrying plenty of food as training ballast!
Somewhat bizarrely, apart from the Skyline, today’s route was as new to me as to Pete. One of the awesome things about TTW training has been discovering my difficult backyard, rather than driving to do yet more gravel circuits in Tararua District or the Wairarapa.
In Grenada, we veered up the inconspicuous Grindatron then down a steep bridleway into the back of Belmont, interspersed with me executing acrash-like stop to check weird-noise brakes. Next was an even steeper ascent to Belmont trig, nearly all pushing; following by another steep descent down to Stratton street, then a thankfully ridable climb up 4 degrees and a mostly ridable descent down Bull Run. Time for lunch.
After climbing around the farm, descending down Belmont Road was very welcome. We endured a couple of traffic filled kms along SH58 before heading down Moonshine road towards the Akatawaras. Despite the seal and gentle gradient, this was the toughest part of the day for me, probably because I hadn’t got eating/drinking quite right, and I rode along in a daze.
We hefted our bikes over the gate into Bulls run road and I again resolved to do more weightlifting. Then it was up up again, at least in the bush this time, before heading down to McGhies bridge on the Karapoti circuit for a rest and some realistic conversation about our plan, which had included the Karapoti loop. It was just after 3 and getting to the fish and chip shop in Birchville before it closed at 8.30pm felt increasingly out of reach. Reluctant to eat our dehy BCCs and thoughtful about Kate hanging out in the campground, we resolved to head into the Karapoti but turn back around 5. While the next bit was flat, our motivation to hit the hills was gone, and after walking the warm-up climb, just a glance at the trudge up Deadwood trigged a swift and unanimous decision to turn around. We had a rest – probably our longest one of the day – and then happily zoomed down to the campsite.
After a patchy sleep, another day of toughness dawned. Pete and I headed up the Incline – taking in Goat Rock road, which had never really appealed to me before – and down to Martinborough. After an early lunch, we bowled along the no8 wired route down past Ruakokopunta, which proved a lovely valley. Nearing Sutherlands hut, the 4wd track degenerated to sketchy. We found the hut in a clearing and enjoyed a couple of minutes shelter from the now blazing sun, refilling our water. I drank a whole bottle, trying to carry less water/weight.
And then we started the heinous climb up the Aorangi range. Both its gradient and condition make it unrideable, and the beating sun enhanced this torture. There were multiple “push bike, brake, move legs, repeat”. We started to have stops. At one of these, about halfway up, Pete peered into his water bottle to see swimming worms. This became an unhelpful mental niggle for the rest of the climb.
The top was followed by steep downs and more ups. Many of the descents were rocky, loose and near the edge of my riding ability, which was not improved by my weird-noice-induced reluctance to brake heavily in the rear. I had several happy-survival moments. Both my front suspension and braking disability kept me ahead of Pete downhill, so at least I knew I’d get help if I crashed! Finally we joined the main road to Ngawi at Te Kopi. The crossing had taken us over four hours, including two painfully slow hours up that big climb. We ground out a fast hour on the road to the new camping ground at Waimeha, and the happy discovery it had a café serving gourmet food.
In those first two days, we’d only covered about 230km and notched up around 5000m climbing, but they felt like the toughest days I’d done all year. (I resolved to spend the next few weeks pushing my bike up hills). We set off again, around the coast to White Rock, which included some helpful bike-over-gate practice. A key lesson learned was to assess the situation before leaping into lifting. The first gate had some uphill fence that would have been easier to get the bike over – the second gate had a small hinged hatch, only discovered by us once we were past…
We rode up the valley and past the wind turbines, our minds on Martinborough lunch, where we also enjoyed a reunion with Kate. After lunch was a gruelling round of Admiral Hill that I found particularly unenjoyable. But in Carteton, Kate made pizza for dinner and life improved again.
With bad weather coming in, we decided to head home the next day, around the big coast, rather than doing more random hills. By the time we got to Eastbourne, we were freezing but satisfied we’d done enough difficult over the 4 days.
After this trip and leading up to Feb, I did a lot of work on my bike. New rotors removed the weird braking noise helped by a patient bleed. I replaced the cassette, freehub body, chain, bb, 2 chain rings, serviced the pedals and replaced the spindle, replaced gear cables and housing, grips, serviced the headset, rebuilt the suspension fork, replaced the tyres. I also bought a new front wheel (and thanks Oli@Roadworks for last minute retruing it after I somehow fell over on to it!) Big thanks also to Jonty@Revolution for mechanical reassurance and wisdom, and Mud Cycles for random parts and advice 🙂
