Milestone – 1,000 kms since March!

Last Tuesday I reached a milestone. I have biked 1,000 kms (yes, one thousand), since I started biking on 12 March this year. That’s 46 rides in 39 weeks. I’m feeling quite chuffed!

When we got back from our Hawke’s Bay holiday, my total mileage was 995 kms. So on Tuesday we went for a short ride, just so we could make it a round 1,000 kms.

We went to check out progress on the Tawa to Porirua track, “Ara Tawa”. We last cycled this combined walking and cycling path in August. At that time we were able to ride from Redwood Station to the Linden Park sports ground, as the track was still a work in progress. Eventually, it will run from Willowbank Park, by the motorway entrance to Tawa, to Kennepuru Railway Station.

This time, we again parked at Redwood Station, and rode towards Willowbank Park. Most of this end of the track is complete, but it stops short of where there will eventually be a bridge across the Porirua Stream into the park.

Ara Tawa, heading towards Willowbank Park (photo by John)

Turning around, we then rode to the other end of the track. It went beyond the Linden Park sports ground, where there is now a bridge, and the path continues for about another kilometer, before becoming a rutted dirt track.

Just before the bridge John said “That's five kilometres, this is where you have reached your 1,000 kms! Congratulations!”. And of course that had to be immortalised in a photo.

1,000 kms! Ten fingers for ten centuries (photo by John)

The area beyond the bridge is not very inspiring, as it runs between the railway line and the stream, with the unattractive backs of light industrial buildings on the other side of the stream. But the track is smooth and wide, the bridge is very nice and the view of the stream is pretty.

The new bridge, by the Linden Park sports ground (photo by John)

The Porirua Stream, viewed from the Linden bridge

It was just a 10 km ride, and we could have gone on to ride in Plimmerton, but it was quite windy, and John was keen to take me to the Johnsonville Bike Shop to get me a present to celebrate my milestone. Isn't he a sweetie! I got some new cycling gloves, as the ones I had, while very good, were just a bit too small for me, and were hard to take off.