I did the washing, by hand thank you!
There was a fair bit of it but it only took about an hour, complete with loads of rinsing.
Then it was house work and tidying up and cleaning bus. After that it was clean the bike and shoes, oil and check the bike.
Then a quiet afternoon reading.
So Monday arrived and with it some early morning rain, so I lay there thinking that I should go and ride the Dunes Trail even if it was raining. So after putting the kettle on I pulled back the curtains and low and behold a lovely morning with all the cloud blown away.
So grab a quick breakfast and pack the bike bag for a 22km ride along the Dunes Trail.
I joined up with the trail at the Opotiki Wharf and after a couple of hundred meters of combined horse/bike/walk track I headed across the back of the Memorial Park and off into the dunes.
The bridge over the river was great but it was the start of loads of narrow squeeze bars, my hips being a little too wide to ride through so had to dismount on them all.
So heading off down the track, double wide and nice surface to ride on, firm and not many larger stones. The views were great ducking in and out of the dunes. A little bit of up and down but good change of pace. Not much work at all really as there was a firm breeze pushing me. Yes I know, tail wind out means headwind back!!!
Met a lovely digger driver who was working on diverting the creek around a piece of the track where they are creating a new bridge and boardwalk area. It is currently closed and either you ride the main road or take the beach. I took the beach and had to nearly ride into the water before I found sand firm enough to ride on. But a great little detour of 900m on the beach.
From there it was a lovely wander through various settlements and houses and lovely areas until I came out onto the road and headed up into the hills. Ha! not bloody likely today. So this was the start of the Motu Road trail. I stopped at a lovely little bridge for a snack and refuel and turned around .
The return was nowhere near as bad as anticipated as there was loads of shelter and the wind was starting to turn sideways a bit.
So a lovely ride of 22km and was feeling great. A good stretch out to get the muscles going again.
After that I got to talking with Ngaio who with John her husband run the Motu Trails shuttle service and bike hire where I am staying. It seems that they were having some VIP’s arriving to do the trail the following day and John was working so couldn’t do the edges after the mower man had been. So instead of offering to do them I told her that after lunch I would be doing the weed eating around the edges. So after lunch we got out the weed eater and I put on my gumboots and off I went to tidy the place up.
After weed eating I decided to weed the garden boxes and then started weeding the edges as well.
It was a great afternoon, finishing off with water blasting the front covered area where the birds had made loads of deposits while sitting up in the rafters.
It now looks lovely and clean ready for the VIP’s from NZ Tourism.
And this morning low and behold, the VIP’s are not coming…. they are being choppered in to the start of the track and the guys here are just going to take some bikes up for them. Ah well at least its done.
So today I am going to wander around the town and maybe drop into the local budget service and see if they want a Community Education seminar…..
Safe travels everyone.
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