Ashburton to Fairlie

Day 28 - Thursday 25 March 2010

Dist: 107 km. Av. Speed: 21.7 km/hr. Cal: 1805. Ride Time: 4 hours 55 min

What an interesting day… clear skies and cool air greeted me as I stepped outside the cabin just after dawn (that‘s dawn with a small d). I’d turned the heater on full blast and turned my room into a dryer to get my clothes ready for the day’s ride.

Breakfast was at a nice little side-street café called Nosh - and they did a very good one.

As I headed away from the café I notice the two women who’d been tenting at the same campground as me, cycle past on their way south too. I thought about catching up and saying hello but as I followed about 75m behind and watched their road craft I decided against it. They were dressed mostly in black and grey and riding right out in the left wheel line. When they came to the Ashburton River bridge which is narrow and busy they pedalled straight across, ignoring the cycle lane/footpath on the left hand side. They only went about 2km before they stopped to remove some layers and as I rode past (within about 1m) they didn’t even notice me. Hmmm an accident waiting to happen. I didn’t see them again.

I veered off SH1 asap and turned inland toward Geraldine at good pace on the flat road with no wind at all. My progress was slowed after about 20km however when I hit gravel again, but this time it wasn’t fresh so it was quite manageable. The 30km route from Winslow to Arundel is basically two straight lines - one is 20km long and the other is 10km and it passes through classic Canterbury Plains irrigated farm country. It was a really picturesque ride with almost no traffic, blue skies and the distant mountains lightly dusted with snow from last night’s southerly squall.

Geraldine arrived in just over two hours as I’d managed an average speed of a shade over 25km/h. My timing was perfect because the staff at The Village Bistro in the town centre were just putting out the tables for lunch and it looked like an ideal venue to stockpile. I enjoyed a very nice lunch and the staff were even kind enough to ask if I’d like to take some bread away for the rest of the journey.

It was hard to leave Geraldine (more terrible puns sorry), I could have sat there enjoying the sun all afternoon, but there was 47km to go, 400m to climb and a forecast head wind to confront. The road shoulder deteriorated to almost zero after Geraldine making it a bit dicey with so many campervans on the road. The only minor incident was at some road works; my lane got the green light to go so we progressed through, but the phase wasn’t anywhere near long enough for a bike, yet the impatient idjits coming the other way decided to come anyway. It would have been alright but I was engaged with the roller driver who was giving me arm signals describing the highway ahead. When I looked back at the road a sedan was coming straight at me and not looking like veering out of my way, I swerved and glared but he didn’t falter, however the driver of the Nissan Terrano behind him got an earful and a crack on the wing mirror - which probably hurt my hand more than the mirror.

The breeze had started to fill in by now and the road was getting progressively more lumpy so the average speed took a bit of a dive as I slogged over the Kakahu Hill and into Beautiful Valley and Cattle Valley. It took an even steeper dive going up the pass toward My Michael but I was relieved to see a sign saying ‘Farm Barn Café - 1km’… a lifesaver!

I’ve noticed an increase in the general friendliness of people today - they seem to take just a little more time to say hello and seem genuinely interested.

After loading up on carrot cake I flew down the drop in to Fairlie and the Top 10 camp ground.

I’m tenting tonight because it’s nice and warm and calm, so after setting up ‘home’ the next job was to change out my road tyres for MTB tyres for the gravel grovel over the Hakataramea tomorrow.

Dinner was an colourful experience as I inadvertently acted out a scene that could have been from a Fawlty Towers episode. It was one of the clutsiest things I’ve ever done. I hope it’s not anything to do with turning 50! It went like this… I’d ordered the blue cod (because it’s supposed to be amazing - it was rubbish) and was filling in time until it arrived by reading a few maps and planning my tomorrow. I got so engrossed in the map that I failed to notice it had caught fire from the stupid table candle - why did I need a candle, I was by myself? By the time I smelled the smoke about 1/5th of the map was gone, the flames were about 6” high and the table was covered in an amazing amount of ash. Talk about doh! I calmly grabbed another brochure and quickly smothered the flames before the waiter came back but there was no hiding the ash (or the smell of burning map) and he busted me in the act of cleaning up. He admitted that he’d never seen that happen before and I replied that I’d never done it before either. I was laughing away to myself but I don’t think any of the other restaurant patrons even knew what had happened.

So I consumed the cod in about five minutes and left, quitting while I was ahead.

Told you it was an interesting day…