Once again, I try to look back on the year. 2016 has definitely been momentous in many ways and on the whole, another excellent year. I’m still loving life in Napier, my work is great overall, having my own house is fantastic and I’m riding bikes plenty (with twelve days to go, I’m rapidly closing in on 10,000 km for the year – easily my biggest year ever; half of that is commuting to work).
The year started off with a couple of overnight bikepacking trips as some form of light training. This one riding the gravel road from Wairoa past Lake Waikaremoana towards Rotorua.
I also persuaded Steve to join me on a great local ride to Everett’s Campsite for another overnighter. The hills back there are well worth seeing and riding.
That and commuting to work was basically my preparation for my Tour Aotearoa attempt. Mum & Dad came up to Napier and dropped me off at Cape Reinga – the goal being to ride 3000 km to Bluff self-supported on a new route that was a mixture of as many cycle trails and backroads as possible (two-hundred odd others were also doing this). It was a grand adventure and I was thrilled with all I saw, the experiences I had and how I rode – finishing two days sooner than I needed to, in sixteen days, overcoming some horrendous weather and slight illness to do so.
Crossing the Hokianga to Rawene – I was feeling far less than brilliant and rested/was sick for a couple of hours in the heat. I got better.
The Timber Trail in the Central North Island was a highlight, even in the early morning mist. I must return.
Much to my surprise, my favourite day was through northern Manawatu. So close to where I went to university – yet I’d never been there, the rural landscape was sensational. The hilly gravel roads were excellent too.
Another highlight was staying overnight in the remote old gold mining area of Big River; even better because best-sister Adele joined me for a couple of days.
The West Coast Wilderness Trail is also on the must-return-to list, as it’s supposed to be beautiful – but it sparked the start of about four-hundred kilometres of rain for me, so I didn’t see much.
After freezing riding up the Cardrona Valley, being blown by a storm to Mossburn and then battling the same storm (reduced to pushing my bike alongside a flat highway into 120 km/hr winds) I was well pleased and satisfied to finish in 16.1 days.
It took quite some time to recover from that; I kept riding to work, but I was eating five meals a day for weeks afterwards – on the ride, I lost about four kilograms that I didn’t really have spare!
My winter break was a week down in Central Otago for Adele & James’s wedding. A fantastic time of family, friends, celebration, beautiful scenery and good food. I loved it.
Perhaps my only bikepacking event for this season, was a very enjoyable four days on backroads around Rotorua. It was fascinating returning to an area near where I grew up and seeing it from the different perspectives that a bike and being older give.
Still recovering from 550 km of riding in four days, came the sudden (but ultimately unsurprising) news of the passing of my grandfather (the last of my grandparents to go). Thus set in motion a whirlwind November. One weekend I was in Sydney for the funeral (it went as well as could be expected), then back to work for a blur of a week, before being back in Australia the next weekend for a long planned trip seeing best-friends from Canada (who were back for a family wedding). A month after all that, it still looms large.
We stayed at Arapiles, where Adele joined me for the renowned rock-climbing (it was quite a family & friends month). I almost popped my other shoulder and swore off rock-climbing forever. I didn’t sleep much camping in the west-Victorian weather, but it was a great trip.
I did, of course, take a bike and managed a great day’s gravel riding in Grampians National Park.
Later this week I head south for two weeks with my family – I’m really looking forward to it. While generally quiet, which is how I tend to like it, 2016 has proved to have its share of momentous occasions and has been one of the best yet. I’m eagerly looking forward to next year and seeing what it holds. There are no fixed plans, but it promises to be another great year in Hawke’s Bay, exploring a little further afield, work will be busy and challenging, and I sure hope for plenty of riding, in different places, with whoever will come along for it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – do come and visit Napier if you’re so inclined.
Rocks – a little part of Mt Arapiles (it’s more of a hill) rising out of the surrounding plains.
A rather burnt out, roofless old shop.
Ready for launch. Oh, about thirty years ago.
Watch for snakes. Yeah right, I could hardly even see the trail – let alone a snake.
Mt Arapiles off over the fields.
The trail actually went up a little hill. There is Mitre Lake – with water in it, a most unusual sight I’m told. The trail around the edge of the lake was extremely muddy and I struggled to push my bike through it as my shoes picked up a thick layer of mud, as did my tyres – so much so that the wheels would not turn.
Adele was pleased to lead me up an easy route. 
It was enjoyable, until I subluxed my shoulder (the one that hasn’t had surgery). In some discomfort, I did somehow get to the top of the first pitch without popping it completely. Claire followed me up.
You can just see Natimuk in this picture. I rested my shoulder a bit, swore off rock-climbing for ever (not much of a hardship for me) and we decided I’d abseil down using my good arm.
Some of the locals hopped through camp.
Past not completely harvested fields….
Up the hill; staged shot you say? Nonsense.
At the top, I looked at things.
This is one of the things I saw, damn Mitre Lake and all its mud again. Not to mention Mitre Rock in front of it, that almost ruined my shoulder. Not bitter at all.
After so long, there was some catching-up to be done – especially after Grandad’s passing (Megan & I only know each other because our grandparents were great friends, having been in the same cycling club in London in the 1940s). So the summit was a good spot for that, it was mostly free of the flies & mosquitoes lower down at the campground.
A perfect little ride down – interesting scenery, warmth but not the heat that was to come, no wind, no traffic…
Alex found a rather placid stumpy-tailed lizard; Finn was keen to take it back to Canada as a pet. Consensus was it wouldn’t survive the winters.
Thursday morning Alex borrowed my bike; in exchange I was schooled in the ways of Pokemon-something. But there were other rewards, the best/only strong cup of tea I had all week for one.
Adele & Claire kept climbing things.
Spot the climber/sister – it gets progressively more difficult.
I remembered the concept of sundowners from being on safari. I stashed a large bottle of stout in my frame bag and it was back up to the summit again – I almost expired in the heat. There were a lot of clouds, and possibly even more mosquitoes – I was eaten, some of the bites still show. So memorable for reasons unexpected. A kangaroo leapt right in front of me as I rode back to camp in the dark – quite a fright, especially after the deer the previous day.
Friday the weather was a bit pants again. After mooching around in the local cafe – we took a drive out to Little Desert National Park to have a look. We did some sort of nature walk looking at varieties of eucalypts. There were a lot of trees for a desert, in fact it wasn’t very deserty at all. #rubbishdesert
Adele & Claire climbed more things – I think they had a good week! Which was just as well, I was poor climbing company – no surprises there though.
Sunday I took a detour via Martinborough for the Toast festival – a good excuse to spend excellent time with Pheasant family, eat plenty of interesting food, drink some local wine & enjoy the atmosphere.
We stopped en route at about midnight to sight the church where the service would be in a week’s time. It was already frosty, much colder for winter than I’ve grown accustomed to; naturally we skated around on the lawn.
We spent the weekend staying at a house that was stuck in the ’70s, it was brilliant inside & out – the views of The Remarkables & Coronet Peak weren’t too shabby either.
The days were cold and still – we spotted a few hot-air balloons floating around early morning.
Craig turned up with a wood-fired hot-tub he had made on a trailer – brilliant! We quickly got to work thawing the garden hose, filling the tub and heating it up. The tub got a fair bit of use over the week – they’re incredible, 
We drove most of the way up the Coronet Peak access road, for a reason I could not discern. The view was adequate compensation.
As the light faded, we headed up the gondola for a bit of luging (little carts on a concrete track, not the Olympic type of luging.)
Sunday morning’s activity, which ended up being in the afternoon, was skydiving for the stag & a few of us. It was a glorious day for it &, I’m told, the experience was quite amazing.
A very pleasant drive through Central Otago looking at the recent snow contrasting with the dry pasture soon had me at Mum & Dad’s, where Adele had also arrived from Westport.
But as this photo has been shared publicly (if you know where to look), I’ll put it here just to show I’m not making this all up – there was in fact a wedding.
Token new bike picture – I have a fun bike again.
Chasing horses down the east end of Moki Road – we were heading for the valley in the distance to the right.
But first a stretch through farmland where Moki Road becomes unformed – but thankfully dry – as the sheep run away. We passed a couple of ruined old houses, still standing – just.
The valley closes in, as does the native bush.
There were five wire swing bridges over the bigger chasms – at least these ones had decks. They were considerably easier than the 
At least here, the trail is well defined. With a GPS trail and the orange markers to follow, only a few times did we lose the trail temporarily as it faded into nothing.
This bridge was intact and rideable!
Steve trying to work out how much of that slippery approach to another stream crossing is worth attempting to ride as the drop to his right becomes apparent. At least, I assume that’s what he’s thinking as that’s what I thought riding down there.
There were frequent stops for track maintenance – we cleared numerous branches and trees from the trail, mostly led by Steve, ever the font of energy.
Finally, we crossed the fifth swing bridge and emerged into the farmland again. Over two hours for less than ten kilometres – that’s 
The view was certainly more expansive out of the trees – Steve taking it in.
The little tunnel of the ride – the stock were slow to relinquish their positions as Roger approached.
We crossed to the right side of the Waitara as the farm track improved to was-once-a-gravel-road and things got a bit faster.
Really nice gravel road riding – and about the highest we got all day at a whopping 350-odd metres above sea level.
With a steep blast back to the valley floor, we found the start of the Rerekapa Track and a suitable lunch stop – suitable except for the young hunting dog that tried to steal most of our food.
There was no way we were clearing the trail of this tree, and a fair few others – the muscling of bikes around obstacles became more commonplace.
Thankfully, Steve had hauled my bike off me and I was standing again before a decent photo was taken. My, that trail looks simple – I assure you that there were more slippery rocks there that I misjudged.
The trail disappeared into the grass before heading for the trees again.
Roger emerging from some taller ferns.
