This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
by Stuart Douce Thursday night: It's Glynne on the phone. Apparently my name is on some trip list and we leave tomorrow. He asks me if I am still keen. “What's the trip?” I ask. “cycling to Mangamahu" Glynne states, not all that enthusiastically. “Ok, I'll go” I reply. The group gear and dinner food is decided and divvied up in minutes along with Glynne's detailed description of his bathroom renovations. Evidently Mangamahu had a pub, but that closed down in 1974. Even an internet search gave nothing away. Finally we discover there is a primary schoo! that gives us a potential camping place. Giving this “township” the benefit of the doubt we check out the route and decide its still a goer. Saturday morning: Up early and surprised to see the sun. By 8am everyone is keen to get their wheels spinning. Unfortunately mine won't. Assembling the front wheel back on the bike proves problematic as the disc brakes constantly rub. I hear Harry's voice in my head “you would never get these hassles if you stuck to cash converter bikes ”. After keeping the group waiting for over an hour Superhero Glynne comes to the rescue. Remembering an ever so small bike part collected from platform 9 while we were loading the bikes on Friday night. Its the missing link and we are away. 10.30am and we are away! Taking the turn off at Karioi we cycle over a bridge that spans the Whangaehu River, fed from the Ruapehu crater. Within minutes we are in the middle of nowhere. Sun, silence and sheep. Weeds grow out of the road. Green grass carpets the hills. The wind greets us from behind. Wheels are spinning and the punters are grinning. This is cycle touring at its best. The road turns to gravel and we ride past steep cliffs rising steeply from the twisting and turning river far below. Plenty of stops for photo sessions and other excuses for breaks. Mid afternoon and we ride into town. Eamonn and I form the advance party and recce our options. A local farmer books us into a disused public domain building. Dinner is soon followed by cups of tea and stories.
Scene two opens to slight drizzle and cloud that hangs around the hills. Passing an old rustic country church I finally snap a pic of an orange 140WV digger. Emmon points out its not the 140WVC model, with the cup holder as standard.
As the countryside opens up and the modern world approaches we cycle and chat. The last 15km we do on our own. Emmon and Brad break lunch early and head towards Wanganui, Glynne and Louise take it easy through Martin and I savour the silent solitude of solo spoke strumming.
Cyclists were Eamonn, Brad, Glynne, Louise and Stuart. Thanks for Glynne for his organisation, Louise for her cooking, Eamonn for his humour and Brad for his stories. See the photo on Page 7.