Cape to Cape day five: Whakahoro to Owhango and a rest day

Route
Oio Road and Kawautahi Road to Owhango.

Link to Map

Distance: 43 km

Despite a good sleep I’m still feeling wrung out but a ‘serves two’ dinner for breakfast helps and I take time to chat to some of the kayakers.  A couple of sisters, one running a cooking school in Germany are taking a holiday prior to sorting out an estate, and the 10 year old runs me through the marathon holiday his family from Christchurch are on – after kayaking they are doing the Tongariro Crossing before climbing Taranaki and heading to Rainbows End in Auckland.

Waterfall by Kawautahi Road

After they’ve all packed up and gone I get things together and head up Oio Road for Owhango via Kawautahi road.  It’s pleasant travel with a bit of traffic at the start.  I stop for a chat with a farmer replacing some fencing before the final climb then the run down into Owhango where there’s a decent café and Spark cell coverage.  Sally just happens to be driving through from Wellington when I ring and turns up within five minutes.  

It turns out that my new bike is still in Hamilton. I call it quits for the day with a view to picking it up tomorrow and resuming the trip the day after.  The Forgotten World Motel in Taumaranui is perfectly comfortable accommodation with dinner at the RSA.

Thursday:  A new bike

Not much to say – a road trip to Hamilton (compulsory stop at Haddad’s in Otorohanga) leaving the old bike at the genteel (i.e. flash) Cambridge Coach House out of Cambridge on the way.  Pick up the new bike (full name: Ridley 2015 X-Ride 20 Disc Cyclocross), bring it back to the accommodation and test their tolerance by spreading gear across the landscape stripping down old bike, setting up the new bike, fiddling, adjusting and readjusting etc.

Finally!

A bike that will make me very happy,
from a company that wants to serve the children of my children  

Fiddling

More fiddling with some supervisory assistance

And ready for action

It takes a lot of fiddling to get the luggage to fit as the frame bag is the wrong shape and the drop bars require a different bed roll arrangement - but it comes together well in the end.  Note the quick draw bottles in two cages hose clipped to the down tube.

It’s going to be interesting – my first cyclo-cross bike: narrower tyres, no front suspension and overall less robust than the MTB but lighter and hopefully quicker.  After all the farfing about there’s still time for dinner with number two brother and sister in-law in Cambridge.


Link to day six: Owhango to Piropiro