Trip dist: 78.27km
Riding time: 4h45min
Avg speed: 16.45km/h
Max speed: 52.71km/h
Total Distance: 1269km
After such a great night in Ann and John’s campervan, we all had breakfast together. Delicious porridge made by John. I started then to pack my freshly washed clothes to go back on the road. Ann told me to take the left over of the quiche for lunch and this makes me happy twice. First because I loved it last night and second time when I ate it. It felt like if left home this morning to have such great food instead of my usual tuna in can.
Such a lovely couple and great hosts! Thank you again Ann and John!
Ann and John used to have a farm on the road from Wanganui to Pipiriki. They told me that the highway wouldn’t be a good option as it is called the valley of thousands hills. Instead I took the back road following the Whanganui river. So many beautiful landscapes on the way but the road was really challenging.
After a big climb, it’s time to enjoy the view before cycling down!
I finally arrived at the flying fox, the farm they used to run. I stopped to take some photographs. To reach the house, the only way is to use a flying fox crossing over the river. Ann told me that when it was raining a lot, it was so dangerous to cross because of the trees carried by the river, that it was better to stay at the neighbour for the night or the next couple of days.
Chao riding his bike passing the Flying Fox
When taking those photographs, I met Chao, a bike tourer as well from China and living in Auckland. He is cycling one week by himself then the second week, his wife will join him. He asked e if I will go to Auckland and gave me his phone number to contact him when I’ll be there. The bike touring is a great community, that’s for sure.
I’m not a church person, but this Maori church is a cool place!
And it’s sitting by a Marae
Marae, the Maori house where everyone can meet up
I made my way to Pipiriki and will sleep on a free campground for the night. The only shop I found was just selling chips, Icecream, and soda… Nothing that can fuel me for the next day… Luckily I’ve got some veggies bought in Picton and some rice. When cooking dinner I realised that my stove was not working really good anymore. I already cleaned it a week ago and still not working… I’m using Kerosene at the moment to power it but seriously this petrol is very dirty. After dinner I decided to disassemble it totally and to clean it. When it wasn’t working well it created a black smoke and everything was covered into a thick black layer. My hands and my face where totally covered in black after cleaning it all. I felt like a minor. Even with using soap, it’s been hard to remove everything. But it finally worked!!
Another church in Jerusalem, yes it’s the name of the village.
Working on the stove!!
Tonight, there are no clouds at all. That’s a shame that I’m in a little town where there is ambient light but the milky way is RAD!! I’ll try my camera taking this kind of pictures to see how is the result and I have to admit that it’s not too bad.
Tent under the milky way
Now it’s time to sleep because tomorrow I’ll still have a lot of hills to climb. Good night all.
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