Churton Park

Oh dear, I am getting way behind on my blog posts – again. Better get on with it and catch up.

On Tuesday 26 October, we did a short ride around our suburb, Churton Park. It is one of the few areas in Wellington where there is still room for expansion. There is a lot of work going on to the north and east of Melksham Drive – new roads being built, with the sections all prepared for building houses, and new houses going up on completed roads. The new roads go so far up the hills, I shouldn’t be surprised if, eventually, there will be a road over the hill to Tawa. John took a lot of photos.

Melksham Drive

New roads are going in to the left and right of this gully

Some roads look ready for houses to be built …

…while others are still very much in the earthworks stage

It looks like the roads will go “over the hills and far away” – to Tawa?

After exploring where we could, we rode up to the top of Melksham Drive, where it morphs into Amesbury Drive, and John was amused to find that one of the side streets was called Bickerton Rise. Since he restored a Bickerton folding bike not so very long ago, he couldn’t resist taking a photo of the street sign.

Bickerton Rise

PS - Last week (4 December), as we were biking down to our local café, we noticed that the hilside above Stebbings Dam is being carved up as well, so of course John had to record that.

More Churton Park expansion – viewed from Westchester Drive (photo by John)

Graffiti or art?

On one of our fairly frequent rides down to the local café and supermarket, we noticed a young man doing a painting on a Chorus cabinet by the side of the road. I called out “Wow!” as we rode past, which he ackowledged with a wave. It looked intriguing, so on our way home, we stopped by and had a chat with him. 

Talking to the artist (photo by John)

Local suburb ride

Today we went for another quick ride around our local suburb. Up the hill, down, along, and down some more, to the bottom of the suburb to our local café, a leisurely lunch, and back up the hill home. Nothing spectacular, just 10 km, and no photos this time.

What made it special was being approached by some people when we stopped at the local supermarket. They were interested in our e-bikes. “That’s the cheating way to go, isn’t it?”, said he, but not unkindly. Our standard response is “Oh no, you still have to do the pedalling! It just takes the edge off those hills”, with a sweep of the hand at the hills all around us.

Jim told us that he had a folding bike too, and that he thought that an e-bike would probably be in his near future too. Anne, on the other hand, prefers to walk.

John is always ready to hand out a little card with his website and my blog address on it. We talked a bit about our rides, and I suggested that if he was interested in a “convivial ride”, he might like to join the next Folding Goldies ride, which will be on 4 June. It will be taking the train to Trentham, biking down the Hutt River trail, and continuing on to Days Bay for lunch, then taking a ferry ride back to Wellington. 

I love it when we get to talk to people about our bikes and our rides, and our blog and website. So if you see us on one of our bike rides, do come and talk to us.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I was thrilled last week, when I received a comment on one of my blog posts from someone in the Philippines, who had discovered my blog, and who, on the strength of our adventures and John’s technical write-up, was inspired to buy folding Giant Expressways like ours for himself and his wife. So inspired were they, that they are planning to take their bikes to Taiwan for a cycling tour later this year. 

I was especially interested in furthering contact with this couple because I spent two years in Manila during my late teens, and my invitation for him to contact me by email resulted in a great response. I wish them all the best, and look forward to hearing all about their cycling in the Philippines, and in Taiwan later on.

Four early January rides

Well now, here we are in a new year, January is almost done and I have a bit of catching up to do. The holiday travelling is finished, bags unpacked, and travel stuff tidied away. We’ve been around a bit – Auckland for a family Christmas, Dunedin for a Scottish Country dancing summer school (just Désirée), and Christchurch for a guided cycle tour of the Mackenzie Country.

After mentioning, in earlier blog posts, the dreadful wet and windy start to summer, it has since turned into the most beautiful summer we have had for some years – sunny, hot and calm.

Between returning from Dunedin and going off on our Mackenzie tour, we managed four rides in the Wellington area.

Thursday 8 January 2015 – Waikanae to Peka Peka

Conscious of needing a bit more biking practice before we all went on our cycling tour, my sister Aimée picked us up in her station wagon (which has room for three folding bikes), to go up to Waikanae for a ride to Peka Peka and back. John and I rode the e-bikes (with the electric assist set to zero), and Aimée rode one of the original folders.

It was an easy ride to Peka Peka, including the track through the sand dunes parallel to Rutherford Drive. We stopped to have an early lunch at Harrison’s Garden Centre.

John and Désirée, in our “folding bike” T-shirts, at Harrison’s (photo by Aimée)

Our eldest daughter gave us very special presents for Christmas: T-shirts printed with the statement “good things are always unfolding” and drawings of a bike unfolding on the front, and our names and website addresses on the back. What an inspired idea – we were thrilled. This was their first outing.

Our ‘folding bike” T-shirts – back view (photo by Aimée)

On the return ride, we diverted into several new subdivisions off Peka Peka Road. There are beautiful homes here and very large sections. From the end of one of the roads, we were able to ride onto a track in the sand hills, which yielded some lovely views.

We stopped to say hello to some horses at one of the sections (photo by John)

Kapiti Island from the Peka Peka sand hills (photo by John)

Just before we got back to Waikanae, we diverted off Rutherford Drive into the Pharazyn Reserve. This used to be the local oxidation ponds, but the area has now been restored to become wetlands and a recreational area. A new feature that we hadn’t seen before on earlier stops here was a bird observation hut. I’m no expert on bird observation, but this hut seemed to be quite well appointed, with fixed seating and benches to lean your elbows on while training your binoculars onto the pond’s bird life.

John and Aimée at the bird observation hut in Pharazyn’s Reserve

It was a hot sunny day, and we were feeling quite overheated by the time we arrived back at the car. It was conveniently parked near the Long Beach Café, so we cooled off with a welcome iced coffee. We had biked 21 km.

Monday 12 January – Around our local suburbs

We went for an e-bike ride around our suburb and the next. The excuse had been to go down to the café on Middleton Road. After this we crossed the Westchester Bridge across the motorway to get to Paparangi and Newlands. There is a whole newly subdivided area to explore. It is a steep hillside, so the electric assist of the bikes got a good work-out.

We stopped at the supermarket in Johnsonville, and took the “back roads” (without too much traffic) home. We managed 15 km on this ride.

The end of Stebbings Road, Glenside. The road in the background is the relatively new
Westchester Drive (photo by John)

Wednesday 14 January – Wellington waterfront

We were quite late starting out on this ride – about 2:30pm. We parked at the far end of Oriental Parade, and the plan was to ride first to the city end, and then to the Miramar Wharf and back. It worked out a little different. It was warm and fine but with high cloud, just nicely warm, not too hot.

We used our original folding bikes, and it felt so good to ride mine. It is lighter and easier to manoeuvre than the e-bike. Somehow it just felt more natural and comfortable. I don’t think we will want to sell these “old” folders, really – it is nice to have the choice. John has reinstated the original gearing – since I now have the e-bike to ride up hills with, we can now just use the “old” bikes for riding on the flat.

We pedalled off towards the city end. Wellington’s waterfront is just gorgeous on a day like this. There were lots of people along Oriental Parade – people and children walking, biking, skateboarding and riding “Crocodile bikes”, and some just lounging about in the sunshine. We rode around the new Clyde Quay Wharf apartments – what a fabulous view they must have from their penthouses …

One end of the marina near Clyde Quay Wharf … (photo by John)

… and the boat harbour at the other end (photo by John)

We biked to the Westpac Stadium and rode up the ramp to the top of the concourse, and down the spiral walkway at the other end onto Thorndon Quay. From there we made our way to Hobson Street and Fitzherbert Terrace and back down to Thorndon Quay via a path used by the pupils of Queen Margaret College to get to the bus stop. This was a mite tricky, as there were a couple of flights of steps to negotiate, but we managed to manhandle the bikes down the sloping concrete edge.

We had planned to stop at Karaka Café for coffee, but by the time we got there, the café part of it was closed, and it was now just a “bar” and restaurant. So we pedalled along to Kaffee Eis on Oriental Parade, and enjoyed an ice-cream in the sun.

The bikes waiting patiently while I went across the road to get some ice creams (photo by John)

After that we were going to bike to the Miramar Wharf, but when we came around Point Jerningham, a little southerly and the shade from the hill made it unpleasant, so we went back to the car.

It was such a lovely afternoon that we weren’t ready to go home yet, so we took “the long way home”. John suggested we could go somewhere and have fish ’n chips. It was too early for dinner, so we parked in Seatoun and biked to Scorching Bay and back, and around the lovely wide tree-lined Seatoun streets.

Seatoun Wharf

Karaka Bay (photo by John)

At Scorching Bay there were several families flying kites in the gentle breeze. One that took our eye was a pretty fancy model, which looked like a galleon in full sail. We watched it being launched, and it flew very well.

A pretty fancy kite at Scorching Bay (photo by John)

Having now worked up an appetite, we got our fish and chips from what is now Huckle & Co in Seatoun. This shop used to be called “The Greasy Groper”, a somewhat off-putting name. I prefer its new image. The fish and chips were very nice, served in boxes in paper bags. More expensive than our local chippie, but the chips were crisper, and not as greasy. We pedalled down to the beach, and sat on a bench to eat, carefully watched by half a dozen hopeful and beady-eyed seagulls. They were out of luck though. We ate every last crumb.

Fish ‘n chips at Seatoun Beach (photo by John)

Then we biked around the streets some more and found a track at the Oruaiti Reserve. It was a narrow gravel track, which ended, for us, near some cliffs and rocks. The track carried on towards a beach and beyond, but it was not suitable for biking. On looking it up, I think it may end up at Breaker Bay.

The track in the Oruaiti Reserve (photo by John)

The beach where we could not continue with our bikes … (photo by John)

… and so we turned around. In the background is the road to Pencarrow

We then biked around a new subdivision on Fort Dorset and finally back to the car and home around the peninsula and the bays. We biked 24.5 km all up. A very nice afternoon.

Thursday 15 January – Otaki

My sister had to go to Otaki where she had stuff to do in the morning, and then again in the afternoon, leaving her with a few hours to kill with nothing much to do in between. I suggested a bike ride might be a good way to fill the time, so I drove up to meet her there with our two folding bikes. A good opportunity to explore Otaki Beach by bike.

We arranged to meet at the River Cottage Café, just north of the bridge at Otaki, and I had just ordered my coffee, when I got a text from her that she was on her way there. Excellent timing.

We had lunch in the garden of the café. We had both parked in the café carpark out the back, and we decided to leave the cars there (having asked if that was OK). We took the bikes to the road by the river, from where a track led both up river and down river.

The track by the Otaki River

The access to the down-river track was pretty rough, as the start of it leads to a quarry. We stayed close to the river, but the track petered out, and we climbed up a grassy slope to get to another track, parallel to the road to the quarry. We rode a short distance down this track, but it was rough gravel, and went up and down rather. It just didn’t look very enjoyable.

This is where we decided to turn around

We decided to ride down Riverbank Road and along to Otaki Beach instead. The road was quiet and had a good shoulder most of the way. We rode down Old Coach Road, and Atkinson Ave, to Marine Parade.

There were some lovely gardens to look at, and beautiful flowers to photograph along the way. Some cardoons, a type of thistle with huge flowers, drew Aimée’s attention, while I was especially taken by a tree smothered in morning glory – which is considered to be a noxious weed in New Zealand, but I absolutely love the colour of its flowers.

Amazingly huge cardoon flower (Cynara cardunculus)

I loved the colours of the morning glory (Ipomoea indica)

We stopped briefly at the beach and took a few pictures, before returning to the café, where we arrived all hot and sweaty, and cooled down with an iced coffee. We had ridden 12 km, which was about as much as Aimée wanted to do.

Kapiti Island from Otaki Beach

Spinifex is a very common plant in the sand dunes along New Zealand’s coast

On the way back we met a large group of children on horseback on a pony club outing

E-bike around our suburb

On Monday 24 November, we went for a short ride around our suburb. Now that we have the electric assist, it makes it so much easier to tackle the hills. We meandered around, and went into several dead-end streets that we hadn’t been into before. We discovered some earthworks going on between the Ohariu Valley Road and Winsley Terrace. It looks like there may be a new road, or at least new housing, going in some time soon.

Ground preparation for new housing? (photo by John)

The same earthworks seen from Ohariu Valley Road, a few days earlier (photo by John)

Half-way down the new-ish Westchester Drive extension, we stopped to have a look at a memorial on the side of the road. When you drive past in the car, you can’t readily stop there, but now we were able to read the plaque. It seems that in 1841 a woman died at Glenside, and because the roads were so bad in winter in those days, her body could not be taken to the town burial ground, so she was buried locally without a proper service. Her grave was consecrated by Bishop Selwyn the following year when he happened to travel past. The full story is in this Wellington City Council website link.

A memorial to an unknown woman buried nearby in 1841 (photo by John)

We made our way down to our local café Thyme, next to the Twiglands garden centre, where we had lunch in amongst the potted shrubbery. We had to fend off the bold advances of a small swarm of rather intrepid and persistent sparrows, which were all hovering around, hoping for crumbs. Waving of arms and stamping of feet did not deter them one bit.

Lunch at Thyme Café (photo by John)

We returned home via Glenside Road and a very steep track extending from Stebbings Road which ended up on Westchester Drive again. All up, we did 12 km on this nice little suburban ride.

The top of the Stebbings Dam track. This track is steeper than any of the Churton Park roads!
  (photo by John)

Another milestone – my 100th blog post

Today is a special day. Not only is this my 100th blog post, but today’s ride is a new departure for us.

After weeks of intensive research by John, and numerous visits to cycle retailers, we decided to take the plunge and “graduate” to electric bikes. And not just electric bikes, but electric folding bikes.

They are beautiful, red, and heavy (because of the weight of the motor and the battery). The brand is SmartMotion, the model is e20. John has written up technical details on his website. Of course the batteries for the electric motors needed to be fully charged before we could take them for their first ride. And John added mirrors on both of the bikes, as he considers them essential, especially if you want to ride on the road.

Our new prize possessions! (photo by John)

The first ride John wanted us to do on these new bikes was a tour around our suburb. While he has often biked around our area on his road bike, I have never accompanied him because I wasn’t prepared to tackle the steep hills. But now that excuse is no longer valid.

First, read the instructions, John said. Then a bit of a lesson on what the on-board computer tells you and what the screen and buttons say and do. And so, off we went, up the road – and I do mean UP.

The “electric assist” has five levels, but you still have to do the pedalling – the bike doesn’t just do it all for you. Initially, I thought there were only three assist levels, so I pedalled up the steep street with the assist set at level 3, into the galeforce wind, but I still needed a bit of a boost to get me to the top.

Enter the throttle. What a marvellous thing! It sits next to the left handle and when you twist it towards you a little, it gives the bike a burst of energy. The further you twist, the greater the extra oomph. How cool!

John took us on his usual ride around the suburb. In the next few photos you can see how steep the streets are and how high the hills are that surround us.

The start of Mauldeth Terrace, in a relatively new part of Churton Park (photo by John)

Mauldeth Terrace disappears from view as it dips down the hill.
The suburb in the background is Newlands (photo by John)

After a meander around the streets, we ended up – surprise, surprise – at the local café, for a coffee and a chat about our findings.

The electric assist certainly takes some getting used to. Whereas on the “old” bikes changing the gears to suit the terrain had become second nature, I now had the assist level to think of, as well as the gears. To begin with, I forgot to change the gears down (there are eight gears) as I was cranking up the assist to get up a hill, so it was still in need of a throttle boost.

The gear change is a different mechanism, whereby you click one lever with your right index finger to go up a gear, and another lever with your thumb to go down a gear. This causes me a bit of bother, as my right thumb is painful and weak (getting old and arthritic is such a bummer!). But I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The throttle is just inside the left handle, which is quite narrow, and I found that my hand was straying onto the throttle without my realising it, giving me surprise boosts! Something else to beware of and get used to.

The seat sits atop a suspension seatpost, which means that it sinks a little as you start riding. So I had to stop twice to adjust the height.

A coffee stop at Simmer Café (photo by John)

Don’t they look great! (photo by John)

On our way home, we went down a path that provides shortcuts between several streets. I hadn’t known about the existence of this path. It goes through a nice bit of "wilderness”, where you have the sense of being far away from the suburbs.

On the shortcut walkway (photo by John)

More meandering around the suburb, and finally over possibly the worst hill to get home again. John reckons that on an ordinary bike, this bit is the “killer”. That’s why he always gets home looking quite knackered after a ride.

Up the “killer” hill of Cambrian Street (photo by John)

We biked 12 km. Though you still have to pedal, thanks to the electric assist, the “up hill and down dale” ride had raised only a mild sweat for us. It was still a good work-out though.

The purchase of these electrically assisted bikes means that we will now be able to undertake somewhat more challenging rides. Last night I had a browse through the Kennett Brothers' book Classic New Zealand Cycle Trails, and found myself thinking “Oh yes, we could do this …, and that …, oh and maybe even that …”. It will extend our scope from “easiest” to “intermediate” level rides. But I think we will leave the “advanced” ones to the young and fit and expert.

Now we have a wee problem, however. Our garage is getting very full. The Giant Expressway folding bikes will have to go. But John is feeling a bit possessive about them – or should that be “obsessive”? He’s not keen to sell them – yet. But perhaps my sister and brother-in-law will want them, in which case they won’t go too far away.

Years ago, when my life was dominated by weaving and I owned over a dozen looms of different types and sizes, we had a saying: “Looms are sly, they multiply”. Perhaps that can be said of bikes too?