This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Medium cycle 14-16 May — Wendy Abbott
Upon arrival at Holdsworth road end Friday night, the other trips quickly dispersed - the easies to the warmth of Holdsworth Lodge, and the mediums and fits for a headstart up the trail. This left only our group of six cyclists camping at the road end. Beth succeeded in putting up her newly purchased (just that day) tent in the dark, despite plenty of “helpful” suggestions, but limited assistance, from the rest of the group!
Saturday dawned grey and chilly. After some debate, and upon hearing the latest weather forecast we decided to shorten our cycle by driving to Masterton and setting off on our bikes from there. Wendy asked the caretaker if he knew somewhere safe to park the bus in Masterton — he hesitated then offered his father’s driveway. Wendy asked if his father would mind... “No, he's dead" was the caretaker’s reply... “Um... oh.... right... well, if you're sure it's OK that would be great” was her stunned reply.
We made our way into Masterton, unpacked the bikes and headed along the road to Castlepoint. The weather was rather changeable, but the wind was light, which is always a bonus when on a bike. We cycled through the Wairarapa countryside, at one stage coming across the rather unusual sight of a fence with sixty-odd soft toys attached (two of which were definitely in an x-rated pose). At some point along the way Craig began to seriously question trip description of “flat with a few undulations”. Being relatively new to the club he hadn’t come across the WTMC definition of “undulating” - a rise up and down of anything between 5 and 500 metres!!
Around lunchtime we arrived at Tinui and an opportunity to warm up with meat pies, tea and coffee. The storeowner's dog soon became friendly and offered Paul his tennis ball to play catch with. Paul promptly threw the ball out the door... into the middle of the road. Thankfully, the dog had been taught not to play on the road (obviously Paul hasn’t) and it stopped at the edge of the concrete looking longingly into the middle of the road, until Paul took pity on it and retrieved the ball.
Back on the road after lunch, and Craig got the first puncture of the trip, but he quickly replaced his tube and we were on our way again. This part of the trip was slightly more “undulating” than the rest, but before we knew it we were climbing the last undulation of the day and descending into Castlepoint. The fact this undulation stood between the nearest pub and our accommodation seemed mighty cruel and crushed any ideas of spending the evening in the pub watching the Super-12 final. We instead stoked up the fire in the Treasury House that
Wayne had organised for us to stay in, and enjoyed the luxurious nature of cycling trips — stacks of food, a roof over our heads - and a fantastic view across to the famous lighthouse. Sunday's weather was no better than Saturday's, in fact it was possibly slightly worse. Susan experienced the first mechanical mishap of the day when her chain got very securely lodged between her bike's rear cluster and frame. With no quick release and no spanner things weren't looking good, but then Craig arrived on the scene and fished out his Grandfather’s handy all-inone bike tool that was up to the task. The back wheel was loosened and the chain quickly unstuck — although Susan had to work hard for the rest of the trip with her back brakes rubbing against the wheel. We arrived back in Tinui at 9.45am... it was cold and wet and the pie-warmer had been refilled ~ so any thoughts about it being too early in the morning for a pie were quickly thrown aside and we settled in for another round of staple cycle touring tucker. The dog didn’t appear to have been psychologically damaged by Saturday's dramatic events and reappeared with tennis ball in mouth.
With some reluctance, we left the warmth of the indoors, and continued our homeward cycle. It was fairly uneventful until 10km out of Masterton when Wendy’s back tyre blew out with a huge bang, on the way down a hill. Luckily it wasn’t a big hill so she hadn't been going too fast and managed to stay on her bike. The severity of the blow out wasn’t realised until the replacement tube was inflated and found to be bulging out through splits in the tyre. With no duct tape available, a roll of elastoplast from Wendy's first aid kit was called into action instead. It was doubtful that this would hold for 10km so Wayne was sent on ahead so he could come and collect Wendy by bus, if need be. However, once some air was let out of the tube, the elastoplast wound around the tyre and wheel, and the rear brakes (which were now rubbing due to the thickness of the tape) released, Wendy was on the road again, albeit at a very slow pace. 100m up the road was Craig, with his second puncture of the trip!
But it all ended happily ever after, with the elastoplast holding all the way back to Masterton and the rest of the group making it back with no more punctures! It was then a short drive to Holdsworth road end to collect the trampers.
Cyclists: Wendy Abbott, Paul Abbott, Beth Piggott, Susan Hutton, Wayne Stevens, Craiqy Mcqreqor