EIT to Puketapu

"What a lovely ride," we said to ourselves as we trundled along yet another new pathway. The weather forecast is dire for the next few days, so we thought we better work off some of our Christmas cheer before the rain sets in. Rose had figured it was only about 16 kilometers.

"Perfect," said Rich, "this close to Christmas." It was too.

When you haven't been riding for a while, there seems to be a 5km working in period. It's quite hard going and you think you might not make the whole trip and have visions of someone driving to your rescue,then you stop, have a drink of water, and you are away flying.

We met Rose in the Pettigrew Arena car park and struck off up beside the Tutaukuri River. The first part passes under the Otatara Pa, through glades of shady trees and headhigh fennel, giving the air a slightly pungent aroma. It was very hot and sticky, so the shade was a relief. On one side is the river, which we caught glimpses of through the trees, and on the other, was orchards of stone fruit and avocados. We eventually burst out of the trees and beside us was a newly planted apple orchard.

New apples on the left.

Looking towards Puketapu.

One of the many gates. At least this one was unlocked.

Despite my complaining body, the ride is a gentle one with only a slight gradient in places. I must admit before we started I had visions of enormous ups and downs, but they never really eventuated, as the ride faithfully followed the river the whole way and we mostly travelled on the stock banks.

The lake at Puketapu

Nativity scene on the hill as we enter Puketapu.

We entered the picturesque settlement of Puketapu declaring that this was our new favourite ride. There is a well known pub which apparently serves lovely lunches, on the corner and a scattering of houses,a church and a little lake.Great place to revisit with a bigger crew. We can entice them with the promise of lunch at the Pub. Not that anyone should need any incentives because the ride itself is so appealing.
There is a tiny bit of road to ride along here and a bit of a climb up past the pub and onto a lovely one-way  bridge. We have to wait for a car and then we dash madly across before the next one comes. Down a steep incline and back to the blessed shade of the trees.

Beside a little church on a hill.

Just before the bridge.

Quick! Here comes another car.

Whew - the shade.

The track remained easy for the next 3 or 4 kilometers  until we passed a couple of pieces of heavy machinery to the side of the track. We made some comments about how they had been working hard to finish the track. A couple of hundred meters down the track we discovered they hadn't. Finished it, that is. The limestone abruptly ended and we continued on sand, which got softer and softer until we all had to dismount and walk for a while. (Note to self: Need to find a sand riding technique.)
Not only did the limsetone end but every gate (and there seemed to be an awful lot of them) was locked. This new pathway is also part of a slightly older horse trail. Rose mentioned she had a key for the gates as she often rides these trails on her faithful Pedro. Unfortunately she didn't have it with her. So we really got a good workout heaving our bikes over the numerous gates -mine has a basket which makes it quite tricky.
We came across a family resting on the side of the track, looking very hot and bothered. A couple of young teens, a 7 year old and a toddler on the back of Dad's bike. They had started from the same place we did but Dad was able to advise us where the next bit of the track went. Which was lucky or otherwise we would have ended up on a very busy bit of road.

Resting family ahead.

More shady trees

Locked gate AND wobbly fence.

 The track became a gravel roadway and the going became much easier - although not quite as easy as firm limestone.Through more trees and up beside the Waiohiki bridge, which fortunately had a little clip on to ride over. In no time at all we were back to our starting point where we cracked open the thermos and dug into the cheese and ham sandwiches and muffins.
Despite the tough bits (sand and locked gates) we decided "Yes, this really is our new favourite ride!"

Waiohiki Bridge.

The Airport Ride

I'm falling behind! This was our last ride and I am still to publish the ride before, before I write up today's adventure.
I could have called this 'A Pre-Christmas Jaunt'. Rich enticed me to do this ride by suggesting we would be going into town to do a few jobs (and I hoped a little last minute Christmas shopping) before doing a 'reccie' on the rest of the airport track.
Well anyway, we completed ONE job (a favour for a friend) before I was whipped off to our starting point at the old Westshore bridge.
It was a lovely day and we nipped down the embankment just before the bridge which took us onto the track that ducked under the express-way and beside the estuary. It's all beautifully mown and I was tempted to stop and have our lunch there as there were plenty of lovely shady trees and the day was quite hot. But no, we had new places to explore, so we pushed on.

Looking back towards the air ambulance building (our son is going to work there soon)

Beside the main road.

We had done the first bit of this track before, so most of it was familiar to us. Past the airport and then onto pastures new. Not sure about the quality of the pastures though. All this land was under the sea not so very long ago and frankly, along here, it's not hard to believe. Up to this point, the track had been quite good, but as we pushed on through the other end of the Landcorp farm the going became fairly rough. The tracks are unfenced and stock can freely roam over it - and they do! Rich suggested it would be a good training ride for the Otago Rail Trail (which we did 3 years previously). And it could be. The limestone track is new and soft, so it can be a little tricky at times. But I have to say - very interesting. At times it was like riding through the Estuary without the water. That succulent seaweed that grows beside the Estuary - whole paddocks of it.

Little bridge - I love bridges.

Fields of seaweed.

There were long straight lane ways and the wind seemed to be in our faces the whole way. Although it was really a sea-breeze - so side-on. We finally reached a little hill that just seem to have popped out of the landscape (something to do with the earthquake , no doubt) and we had a choice - left or right? The going had been tough so we chose right, thinking we could do the the kilometres another time with a group of friends.
As we left the soft limestone we hit a farm track through a flock of very healthy looking hoggets. I don't think they were to used to bikers as they seemed a little skittery - several of them leaping into the huge drain we were following. Just when I thought we would have to stop and get our feet (and bums) wet to haul them out, they scrambled up the other side. "Whew" I thought.
Just after that we hit (not literally) a locked gate.
"Well, I'm not going back!" so we hoofed the bikes over and we found ourselves at a dear little reserve. Definitely lunchtime!

See the hill? Left or right at the base. We chose right this time.

Well it wasn't July, August or September and yet the gate was still locked!

Rich unpacks the lunch

From here we headed back towards the sea (head wind) and along Bayview then onto the Esplanade at Westshore. Vroom - yay for the concrete pathways. Back to our car in no time.
Would I recommend this ride? - Yes - but it's not for BIG sissies. I think it will improve in time and it does take you through some very different countryside. We had fun and although it wasn't a particularly long ride, we did earn our lunch.

Revisiting the ex-virgin

Haven't written this one up yet. Having too nice a time to be bothered.

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Virgin Territory

The start of the track at the end of Humber Rd.

Wa hoo - bit scary in the wind.

Riding past Onekawa industrial area.

Under the Old bridge and over the weir, and under the express-way.

Peep holes to observe the birds.

It's always exciting to conquer virgin territory! The long awaited Estuary ride was advertised in the paper as being 'hopefully' open last weekend. Hopefully being the operative word! A small group of us (Rose and Bob, Fenton and us) met at Humber Rd (by the optimus yatching head-quarters) and hit the Estuary walk trail. Felt a bit bad about it, as really, it is still a walking track and there were hundreds (or so it seemed) of people on it, all ducking for cover as we tinged our little bells. It is really too narrow for bikes and walkers to pass comfortably on it. So we have decided to by-pass it in the future.
It's only a short stretch and we were soon on the old Westshore bridge. From here, we ducked under the express-way and onto the new path, which we had tried sometime ago, but the gate was locked. Guess what? It still was! There were so many people on the track - hippies, families, wrinklies (like us), -and everyone was just heaving their bikes over the gate,so  we decided we would too.
It was lovely for a little bit; following the line of the wetlands. Apparently Transit (New Zealand's roading contractor) wanted to put the expressway through this wetland, as it was the shortest route to the airport. The Ahuriri Protection Society put forward a forceful protest and it was diverted to its current position. Great! Unfortunately they have been just as adamant about bikers, walkers and dog owners. So for a lot of the ride the ducks were buffered from us 'despoilers' by a large stop bank. The original plans for the track is vastly different from what it is. Good for the birds I guess, although the ones we did pass didn't seem too phased about sharing a little bit of their home with us.
We passed through lovely meadows (paddocks, pastures, fields) of grass and russian-fudge-coloured cows (not to mention a rather alarming sized bull but as I was too busy negotiating the path he had roughed up, I didn't really bother about him.) This farmland is owned by the Napier Harbour Board and run by Landcorp. It appears very lush and fertile and parts were being mown for hay that day. It's hard to believe that is was all under water a mere 80 years ago.

Oh no! Locked gated! Lucky we're such rebels.

Fudge coloured cow.

Nearing the end of the rough bit ( until the next one, that is).

Now that's a bridge to nowhere.

Hunkered down behind the Estuary.

The limestone ends abrubtly ( as did the battery in my camera) and then we really roughed it to the 'other Bridge to Nowhere', by Park Island. The track is prepared for the limestone having been passed over by a grader blade, but it is simply not there yet. Lucky we are such intrepid bikers. A bit of jarring and juddering and then we were soon rewarded with the concrete path again - oh bliss!

The end of the limestone.

The top of the stop-bank looking back.

Do we carry on - we're not sissys - of course we do.

Bit rough ( an understatement)

Hooray! We have a bit of a tail wind that shoots us down the concrete pathway down Prebensen Drive (a main artery) but stops at a very painful point - so now we have to negotiate a terrifying crossing and a mere 100 metres to our junction. Rich and I have done this bit before and feel just a little bit grand guiding the rest of our party along a track which we can only describe as 'more exciting but less dangerous' (so long as a train doesn't come on by). We wave goodbye to our new friends who have travelled at least half of the way with us. At times they easily pass us until I point out to Rich, that  one of the guys has exactly the same bike, so Rich drags him off. Ha ha - he didn't even realise there was a competition.
Funny thing is - we all arrive at our starting point at exactly the same time (I suspect our way WAS shorter, but we may have taken longer.)
We haven't bought our thermoses today so we go our seperate ways. It's not even 15 ks so although we weren't sore, we were satisfied.