Southern Wairarapa Road Ride

Solo Road Ride

The plan: bike over the Rimutakas, fossick around in the Wairarapa and catch the train home.  A chance check of the web reveals that buses are replacing the train between Masterton and Featherston (no bikes will be carried) so it will have to be a Southern Wairarapa trip returning to Featherston for the train.

Started in the Hutt and headed north up Cambridge Tce and Eastern Hutt Road to Silverstream Bridge. Cross to SH 2 and stop to repair puncture (recommend avoiding E Hutt Rd).  Follow SH 2 over Kaitoke Hill (steepish) then on to the Rimutakas.

Having driven over the hill many times I thought you would have to be crazy to cycle it, this view has been reinforced by seeing very few cyclists over the years.  It was a pleasant surprise; there are reasonable shoulders much of the time and it's only a 300m climb from the base to the saddle at 550m.  A few steepish sections but all over and done with fairly quickly. I'm yet to be convinced about coming back though, you would be coming up the inside edge of the road which means drivers can't see you on corners and there are a number of these which have deep gutters, no space and a tendency for rocks on the road where you want to ride.

The ride down the other side was a ball. A group of motor bikes were just leaving the top so I slotted into the middle and stuck with them through the top windy section. They caught a car when it started to straighten out and with a dry road it was easy to stay on the tail of a bike using the whole lane for cornering.  The car eventually pulled off and the bikes got away on a straight but by then we were well clear of traffic and it wasn't far to the bottom.

Featherston is an excuse for a break and water refill before heading south down Western Lake Road and turning left onto the East West Access Road.  The gates on the outlet from Lake Wairarapa are another excuse for a bite and rest.


Lake Wairarapa control gates

Taking a right at the T junction then a left onto Lake Ferry Road it's the long grind into a light northerly to Martinborough.  Time for a pie and refill the water bottle sitting outside a café watching the traffic around the square (and drinking terrible coffee).

There's a bit of time before the train so rather than take the direct 16k to Featherston it's a chance to head up Bidwills Cutting Road to Greytown (rest and stretch) then back down SH2 to Featherston (stopping briefly at the POW camp).

Plenty of time for a burger and chips chatting to the train staff on the station (one guy had to spend all day there guarding the train from toe-rags with spray cans) then a further delay waiting for the replacement buses to turn up.  It's pitch black by the time we are heading south above lake Wairarapa and into the first and longest tunnel. I take the opportunity to repair the punctured tube.

By the numbers:
Left at 0940 arrived Featherston for the last time about 1610.
143k all up
51k to Featherston
63k to Martinborough
29k to Featherston via Greytown