A Great Run! Greta Valley to Kaiapoi - 67kms

Yesterday, after Del had hauled the two bike trailers, (and his wife!) up the high step into the old caravan, we settled in and slept well.
Today, we woke to another lovely day and, after packing up, then breakfasting in the camp kitchen, we took off at 8.00am.

We had a long winding hill out of Greta Valley followed by several kilometers of undulating, downhills.
From Omihi we entered vineyard country - with a flat road and a tail wind!

Waipara itself is quite small and sleepy. No cafe here!
We pedalled on to Amberley (almost as small) where we grabbed a muffin and coffee.
As Del parked his bike, he discovered that his back wheel was suddenly locked. The special axle, that connects the trailer to the bike, had come loose with all the shaking on the rough, road shoulder. Del diagnosed the problem straight away, and fixed it. Could have been disastrous if it had happened on the highway, or even worse, on a serious downhill.

Traffic today was unusually heavy and we couldn't relax awareness of it.
Pedalled like mad across the Waimakariri River Bridge with a queue of traffic crawling behind us!
Arrived at Kaiapoi - a neat, attractive town with all mod cons and several lakes - and bought a few stores at New World. 

We cycled through the town heading south, looking for the Riverland Holiday Park. In the process we discovered a new cycleway running alongside the highway. Passers by informed us that the cycleway ran all the way into Christchurch.
Eventually found the holiday park and took a very reasonably priced motel unit. Enjoying the luxury already!

NB Thank you to everyone sending comments on our blog. Do look forward to them  but sometimes having trouble replying. Google doesn't seem to recognize that I'm the blog host! Will keep working on this!


Comments

  1. Simon HenleyFebruary 6, 2021 at 11:21 PM

    You're making great progress - almost in Christchurch already! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Harry WhorwoodFebruary 7, 2021 at 1:17 AM

    Too true you are. What a lovely country, so clean, tidy, well-scrubbed, fresh-washed. Glad your night in the ‘van was good. I hired one of those in 1974 to go to the Isle of Wight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CindyFebruary 7, 2021 at 8:58 PM

      Aha! But I bet it didn't come with "A flea - ha,ha,ha,ha!" Little varmint bit me all over!

      Delete
  3. Harry WhorwoodFebruary 7, 2021 at 1:18 AM

    Also having trouble posting, and will also persist. I tried earlier, but now Simon seems to have unlocked the jam

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being Realistic! Resting in Invercargill

Image
11 years ago, at age 70, Del did his very first bike tour, Cape Reinga to Bluff.  Having just completed the South Island section with him, I now have the deepest respect for him and his amazing, solo achievement. Del's memories of that trip had faded over the years, especially the uncomfortable ones - like endless hill climbs! Unable to cycle overseas last year, we planned to cycle around the South Island on our electric bikes.  When we found that it was impossible to fly them by Air NZ, we decided, as we've done so many times before on our trips to Australia, to take our push bikes and trailers! We both love the thrill of cycling, at a good speed, when pedaling is almost effortless. On only 2 days out of the 24 days we've been away, have we experienced this thrill. The remaining 22 days have been physically demanding and very tiring.  Cycling in heavy traffic, handling the bikes and trailers over rough or non- existent road shoulders, negotiating river bridge...
Read more

A Weighty Decision! Milton to Balclutha - 26kms

Image
To date progress has been pretty slow - too much walking due to the hilly terrain and our weighty trailers.  We needed to do something to make the journey easier. We couldn't change the hills - but we could reduce our load - again!  We resolved to courier/freight the heaviest item, the tent, and any other item not used regularly, as soon as we arrived in Balclutha. With 26 kms to cover, we left Milton a little later than usual, at 8.00am. The road undulated through lush farmland - obviously serious sheep country. The undulations were enough though to get us off our bikes. We must have dismounted and walked around 15 times! That settled it! The tent and accessories had to go! Tall rectangular hedges, typical of the area, are often found stretching across hectares of farmland as windbreaks. We checked out the Old Sod Cottage on the way. I think that the old sod must have lived a pretty miserable life in this dark and dingy little home. ...
Read more

What a Cycle Path! Kaiapoi to Christchurch - 30kms

Image
The Riverland Holiday Park, where we spent last night, is adjacent to the Riverland Golf Club and seems to cater for groups of visiting golfers. Great facilities - motel units, cabins and camping areas. Yesterday we encountered a new, tarsealed cycle way into Kaiapoi. Today we found the continuation of it, just a kilometre from the holiday park.                                                A group of well endowed bulls watched us as we left and we passed one of the large irrigation systems that keep this area so green. The many arches span the entire length of the field. We quickly found the cycle track.  Wow! It is tar sealed, wide and runs beside the motorway, protected from it by a sturdy, iron fence. Apparently it takes the rider all the way to the city centre! We were enjoying it so much that we missed the turn off to Ho...
Read more