Sunday, April 27, 2025

Getting some Altitude training

Finally catching up on some writing...

A wee while ago I was intending on going for a quick squirt up Whariti (no time for a decent ride) but by the time I was ready to go the wind had got up at my place and if you can feel a breeze at my place then it is blowing on Whariti - I've been on a ride up there where we all turned back before we got blown off the hill.

Anyway, I finally had some time and decided to tick it off.  No excuses being less than 20 minutes from the start of the hill climb climb up the hill.

After crossing the Saddle, I stopped at the start of the gravel, reset the GPS and kicked the camera into life.



A great wee scramble up the hill and 10 minutes later I was at the top enjoying the views.
















While I was up there I heard a plane buzzing around and scurried to see if I could spot it.  I eventually saw it and even managed to capture (with my cheap point and shoot with 5x zoom) it as it went past well below me and trying to avoid the windmills.


After all those photos it was time to drop back down the hill and enjoy the views from the seat - always a better view on the descent.


Back down on level ground, I still had plenty of time up my sleeve and a desire for more gravel so headed off towards Pahiatua via Balance and another nice run through Tararua Road - not quite as quick as the weekend before.



Dropping down into Pahiatua, my next turn took off onto Ridge Road Central which I've only done a couple of times but it is a nice wee strop along the ranges.  Some nice faster sections at the start, followed by some more heavily gravelled stuff and getting stuck behind a tanker...



From there I took a few boring and straight sealed roads until I could hook up onto the always fun Pukehoi and Kopikopiko Roads which we normally take either going to or coming from Eketahuna.  Always fun and often fast but this time around there was some deeper metal to surf around in.



A squirt back over the track and that was just about it for the ride - pretty short and sweet but a lot of fun out on the gravel again.



1 comment:

  1. Sure is some nice views from up there. Te apiti about those ugly wind farms.

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