Pipiriki to Wanganui (from Raetihi)

Day 15 - Friday 12 March 2010

Dist: 79 km. Av. Speed: 22.4 km/hr. Cal: 1498. Ride Time: 3 hrs 32 min

It was cold and drizzly as we made our way to Angel Louise Café in Raetihi for breakfast about 8am. Score 7.5. Very nice setting and great service. A perfect place to stop if you’re looking to take a break in Raetihi while travelling SH 4.

The cloud lifted as we drove back down to Pipiriki to re-join my route and resume pedalling south to Wanganui. It was a relatively short and easy day following the river as it wanders through farmland to the coast. The first 15km were gravel, followed by a section of brand new seal then regular sealed country road after that. It was quite windy and narrow with a few good climbs, especially the last one with the lookout just before the intersection with SH 4.

Out on the road I caught up to a lady who must have been into her sixties pedalling quietly along on her way to Wanganui too. She’d started the day at Jerusalem, but home was Whakatane and she was heading back there via Taihape and Napier. Her old mountain bike with its off-road tyres was loaded with far more gear than mine and she was wearing sandals and socks without cleats. She must have amazing patience.

We broke the day in to three 25km legs and cruised into Wanganui about three o’clock for tea and hot cross buns at Donna’s. Thanks Donna, it was great to catch up.

After dropping my bike off at the Avanti Plus store for a check-up we moved in to our motel and made directly for the spa to sooth the legs.

We had a great dinner at Stellar in downtown Wanganui.

Tomorrow the family will head back to Waihi after I get my bike back, and I’ll make my way solo to Fielding for the night. The legs feel a bit jaded at the moment so I think it’ll be a pretty sedate stage.