I awoke this morning to the smell of breakfast and freshly
made coffee, there is no better way to wake. After enjoying our fantastic
breakfast, courtesy of Phil, we were eager to get back on the bikes after
spending the last two days apart. As I pumped up my tires I asked Phil, who had
owned a local bike shop, if he could help me with tuning my bike quickly; as it
was having problems with shifting into high ranges. Before long Phil had me
fully tuned and the bike was packed. We sadly parted ways and hoped we would
see him again.
Back on
the road, my bike felt better than ever, thanks again Phil. It was a good thing
too, because today I was going to need the old girl in tip top shape to help me
push through the maddening headwinds we had forecasted. According to Phil, Palmerston North is the
windiest place in New Zealand; well we felt every just of it coming out of
town.
On the
road we pushed through the wind, which apparently never stops, for kilometer
after kilometer. Unlike other headwind days we had, our spirits were keeping
high; I’m not sure if it was the beautiful pastures of the lushest green
rolling endlessly all around or maybe the knowledge of a hot meal and shower at
the end of the journey. Our pace was slow but steady and both of us could really
notice how much more fit we were since the start of the trip. We decided to
stop for lunch in the small town of Samson and to grab a coffee at this little
café in an old church aptly named Church Café. What a good choice this was, for
fairly cheap Brian and I each enjoyed some delicious hot food, I had the bacon
frittata and Brian had a toasted sandwich, and each a hot drink. Looking back
now, I credit this stop in giving me the ability to push through to what
follows. As we still had many kilometres to pedal we were back on the road and
wind on our face. I have never before experienced such a wind as we had today.
There was not a single moment in our eight hours today where there was no wind.
There were some moments were you come behind some trees and feel the resistance
back off a little, only to appear the other side a massive gust of wind
bringing you to standstill. It was a completely unrelenting force all day long,
there was moments where it was so gusty that any movement of my front wheel
would send me into traffic or the ditch.
After
many stops, some walking of the bikes, and few select curses we finally rolled
into Wanganui just after 6, and funny enough the wind died down. A little past
Wanganui in a beautiful country home we reached our overnight stay courtesy of
the lovely John and Ann. With rain beginning open its ugly eyes down on us we
hurriedly unpacked the bags and were in the house. John and Ann were so kind to
include us in their dinner, even though we were running it quite late.
Yet again
Warmshowers and New Zealands wonderful sense of hospitality had shown us a
great time. We enjoyed a lovely meal with John and Ann followed by some tea,
cookies and an exchange of travel stories around the world and New Zealand. With
another storm coming through Brian and I were invited to stay a second night
here to sit out the storm so off to bed it is after a long and very hard day.
Day 16, 81km and all wind.
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