Day 24: Wanganui to Hunterville
March 21st 2014
Distance cycled: 60 km
Total distance to date: 1300 km
This morning I had a lovely breakfast with Lyneke and Zolta the Hungarian guy. Lyneke made pancakes. I don't normally like pancakes but these ones were delicious! She cooks them with thinly sliced apple layered on top, then uses lemon juice, brown sugar and cinnamon as toppings. Amazing!
Before I left, I asked Zolta to demonstrate his recumbent bike for me. He obliged:
He will be in Seattle in May. If anyone there is willing to host a zany Hungarian cyclist for 2 nights, let me know... he makes excellent pizza.
Before I left Wanganui I had to go to the coast where the river meets the sea. The sand there is black, which I love.
Then I cycled back to town along the riverfront path. A strong headwind made sure it wasn't too easy a ride.
Leaving town was easy due to a ride up 66m Durie Hill in an old elevator. It cost $2 to ride and you had to access it by going down a long tunnel and ringing the bell. The lady operating the elevator helped me load my bike.
At the top, the view over Wanganui was glorious.
Then I took off through more farmland to get to Hunterville. Well, almost there. I got a really late start today (I found free unlimited wifi at the town i-Site and kinda went nuts on it or a while) and then needed to eat, and then went back for more wifi, then ran into Lyneke. She said I could stay another night if I wanted. Zolta was staying over again, too. But I wanted to get moving, so I declined the offer.
Unfortunately, it got dark just 5km before I hit town. I might have made it but I had to stop to repair a flat. The next campsite is 8km after Hunterville, 6km of which are on SH1. So I did not want to ride all that in the dark. Instead, I found a place to camp not far from the road by a stream. It's quiet here but also a place where they're doing some logging, judging from the signs and the machinery parked here. Tomorrow's Saturday so hopefully they'll not be working.
In better news, I made it into today's local paper, the Wanganui Chronicle.
posted by Kyla @ 13:35
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