What is it about Auckland and thunder storms!! I was awoken by the sound of thunder during the night that sounded like a rifle shot directly above the motel and then it started to rain and rain!
By morning the rain was down to scattered showers, but there was a very strong westerly wind. Due to the weather I was a bit later leaving and rolled out about 8.20am to be greeted with constant traffic all the way to Pukekohe. At least there was a good road shoulder where the tarmac on the shoulder was the same as the road surface and signs asking cyclists to ride on the shoulder so at least you knew this is where you were meant to be..
While there was a great road surface, this was negated by the effect of the wind which was basically directly on the nose, or on your side which was worse and with intermitent showers it was not that pleasant, so breakfast at Pukekohe only after 20 odd ks was welcomed.
Just as I was having breakfast I got a text from Spark advising that I had used all my data allocation, buggar, that would mean no more music as I was live streaming.. I was sure that I had seen a Spark store riding into Pukekohe so I would go there and get it sorted. Took off from the cafe and had to ask the Postie as to where the Spark store was and guess what, it was right next door to the cafe I was at.. I must have had a “man’s look” but I knew I had seen one! I changed the plan by increasing the data so hopefully now all good..
Not the easiest town to find your way out of, but got on the right road which went past Pukekohe raceway and the track goes really close to the road and was surprised as to how narrow it was and secondly how much of a gradient there is going into the main straight,the tv does not do this justice at all.
I was following a route from the Map application that put me on SH22. In hindsight, I should have just gone on SH1, as the Map application for the cycling route can often put you on a quite a convoluted route which is what happened today, combined with a naviagtion mistake on my behalf which added about 22ks in very undulating country, that also probably added at least an hour unnecassarily to the trip.
When I was still on SH22, but felt like in the wop wops, I finally checked the Map application on the tablet which was great in that immediately identified where I was, but buggar, I was off course and on the way to Raglan. I had considered going there in the planning stage, but had flagged it as it was a bit remote from the direction I wanted to go, both getting there and out of there.
I felt like a skipper in the round the world yacht race in that when you make a navigation error, you need to take your medicine and cut your losses as against carrying on.. This was the position I was in as within a couple of ks of the Map application establishing my position there was a road junction, 58ks to Raglan, or 25ks to Huntly. Decision time!
At least in the direction on Huntly the wind would also be more favourable as in the undulating country at the tops it was really gusty and the backpack acted like a sail making riding really tough and it would continue like this all the way to Raglan, as well as the road continuing to be undulating.
Not that it was not undulating to Huntly, the ups and downs were just relentless and the wind was never right behind you. Even when (finally) the twin stacks of the Huntly station came into view, the road took a somewhat roundabout way to get there, but finally came out at the back of the station. The twin stacks look huge when you are on SH1, but going past right next to them, they are enormous!.
After crossing the river to get to SH1, there was a cafe where I was able to get a coffee and some food as it had been a long hard day to this point and time to get the tablet out. It was 30 odd ks to Hamilton and 59ks to Te Awamutu which was my intended destination. As it was now 3.30pm made the call to flag Te Awamutu and just go for Hamilton and the quickest way possible which meant SH1 and the Waikato Expressway. At this point it started to rain, again, great! Plus the wind had not abated all day which was obviously pay back for the day I had a tail wind getting out of Dargaville!
The expressway was a souless bit of road and hard going with straights and rough seal, be it that there was a very wide shoulder and I took it all the way into Hamilton CBD with the wind being still basically right on the nose!. While on the expressway (cyclists were allowed) I could see a cycle way at a lower level which came from the side of the Waikato river after it was crossed, but could not see as to how to get down to it.
While at the cafe I had checked out accommodation options and seeing one what was close to a Speights resturant, when I saw the resturant I knew that I was close so this worked out well in that the motel was then easy to find. The motelier was a young asian guy who was most impressed with what I was going as he was a bit of a fine day “Sunday” cyclist himself.. Very obliging in that in showing me to the unit, even put the jug on!
Total ks for day were 133 with a climbing elevation of 1,911m. For those following on Garmin Connect and Strava, for some reason over the last 2 days the rides have not been downloading, but I think that I may have now sorted it, so that they should download after the next ride.
It was disappointing to not reach my intended destination of Te Awamutu which had it not been for my navigation error, despite the tough riding with the wind it would have been achievable, but will just have to make up the “lost” ks over coming days.