Finally – it has stopped raining

The sun is shining and the shorts, T-shirt and jandals are getting an airing. It must be time to start getting serious about some training for the big ride.

I am certainly happy to see a more settled spell of weather. My winter walks along the Wairoa Stream checking our rat traps has this year necessitated the wearing of gumboots. In a normal winter, the track can get a little slippery in shaded areas but not usually muddy or flooded. This year, with three times our normal rainfall, it has been boggy and under water in places. The rats are obviously not of the swimming variety as my traps have largely been empty or, maybe we are just starting to thin the population out a bit – let’s opt for the latter, makes me feel like my efforts are not in vain.

I have been putting my intimate knowledge of the roads in Kerikeri and environs to some use by joining a group hoping to further alternative modes of transport. In addition to the growing number of people now riding bikes, with multiple retirement villages, the numbers on mobility scooters and pushing walkers, is also on the increase. At the younger end of the spectrum, skateboards and scooters both of the manual and powered variety are also a common modes of getting from A-B. Unfortunately, our roads are only designed for cars and many of our footpaths are dodgy to even walk along. Nothing ventured nothing gained but should we be successful I suspect that it won’t be in a timeframe to make my rides safer. Maybe I will have a better footpath to push my walker along.

I am taking a Council consultant and the Chief Roading Engineer for a spin around our dangerous urban roads in weeks time – I hope that I don’t have to throw myself under a truck to get the desired results. They should finish in a suitably terrified state without any dramatics.

The problem with training for a ride is that it can get a bit boring as you tend to run out of fresh territory to ride along. I have been trying to mix it up a bit and, of course, I have the advantage of living in a predominantly rural location. That allows me to get out of town and onto quieter country roads, both sealed and gravel.

I also tried something a little different a few weeks back by joining a group (about 14 riders) for a ride up in the Doubtless Bay area. I decided that hurtling along a freshly metalled gravel road at 25kph trying to hold a conversation, was not my style. I am happy to meander along looking at the scenery and for potholes. Given my hearing challenges, trying to hold a conversation on a noisy gravel road is way beyond my capabilities. Because of all the bumping, the speakers head is jumping around so much I give up trying to lip read. However, it was a circular ride through new territory taking us along Doubtless Bay and then inland to Peria before rejoining the coast at Mangonui.

Speaking of heads jumping around. One of the things that I try to get sorted (it usually takes about 5 attempts) is the layout of my bags on the bike. There was nothing wrong with how I did this on my Tour of Aotearoa ride but I have replaced a couple of bags which has resulted in my GoPro displaying bags rather than something more interesting. I decided that the answer was to set the camera up on my helmet. After viewing the results I decided that I would abandon that option lest I start being called ‘noddy’. Today I tried raising the Gopro using one of the extenders that come with the camera – the result was unwatchable so I decided that reconfiguring the bags was the solution and ended up with the same layout that I had for that last big ride.

Last year it was Covid and lockdowns that I had to plan around, this year it is persistent 1 in 500 year floods. At the time of writing two of our intended rides are impassable and the alternatives are not encouraging. Hopefully sufficient road repairs will have been completed by the time we arrive, provided of course that these weather events subside with the onset of Spring.