Folding Goldies Ride – Akatarawa

On the 1st of November, the Folding Goldies group went for a long ride over the Akatarawas. The plan was for us to meet at the Waikanae Station for the uphill ride.

The leader, Alastair Smith, described the ride thus: “The Akatarawa Road leads through farms and bush, making for a ride with a really remote feel. From Waikanae, the road winds steadily to the summit then it's downhill for a café stop at Staglands. [On the way down] we'll turn off at the newly reconstructed Birchville Bridge to come down the (now motor free) road that was built on the west side of the Hutt river after the 2015 flood. We'll probably catch a train back from Upper Hutt, though keen folk can carry on down the Hutt River Trail”.

He ended with a bit of a warning: “40km, 800m of climbing – if you're using electric assistance, make sure your battery is fully charged”.

We have done the Akatarawa Road once before with the Folding Goldies, but on that occasion we approached it from the Upper Hutt side. That was a hard enough slog (we did not have our e-bikes at the time), but I remembered the downhill into Waikanae as being incredibly steep. So I had a few misgivings about going up from the steep side.

On the appointed day, Alastair was not able to come along on the ride, as he was not well, so Lyn took the lead for this ride. We had a good number there - 11 people all up. We even had to fold our bikes on the train because there were already three bikes in that carriage.

Lyn, in the orange vest, was waiting for us at Waikanae station (photo by John)

Actually, the climb up to Staglands wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. In fact, I used level 3 assist most of the way, and even level 2 some of the time, as John had said not to use too much battery in case it wasn’t going to last the whole trip. But it was fine.

The road between Waikanae and Reikorangi was not very steep (photo by John)

Outside Reikorangi Church (photo by John)

Still outside Reikorangi Church (photo by John)

The road became a bit steeper … (photo by John)

Waiting for the stragglers after a pretty steep bit (photo by John)

When we got to the highest point, we found that the view was pretty disappointing. A bit of a dump, actually. I think the council should do something about this. But perhaps neither Upper Hutt City nor the Kapiti District think it is their problem, since it’s sort of in between the two.

When we got to the top, the view was less than inspiring (photo by John)

From here it was a nice descent to Staglands, where we stopped for lunch. A very pleasant interlude, with the conversation revolving around bikes and bike trips – of course. All punctuated by the calls of peacocks, the squabbles of geese, and the funny squeaky sounds of the guinea fowl as they strutted along in the dell below the café’s terrace.

Lunch at Staglands (photo by John)

Then we had another 20 km ride down (and up and down again) to Upper Hutt. At Birchville we crossed a new bridge, which led onto a narrow, but tarsealed road without any car traffic, winding along above the Akatarawa River – much nicer than having to ride on the Akatarawa Road itself. We got to Upper Hutt Station in time to catch the 2:30 train back to Wellington.

Simple for those who had boarded the Kapiti train in Wellington. But we had boarded at Takapu Road which is on the Kapiti Line, so that was where our car was parked. And we were now coming into Wellington on the Hutt Valley Line. I was thinking we would take the Kapiti train back to Tawa from Wellington.

However, Colin, who had to get back to Titahi Bay, said he was getting off at Ngauranga, and would bike up the Gorge and go home that way. John reckoned we should do that too. I balked at the thought of biking up Ngauranga Gorge. I really didn't want to, but John and Colin “ganged up” on me, telling me I was a wuss, and what was I worried about since I had an e-bike. So of course, I gave in.

So we biked up the Gorge. It wasn't as bad as I feared either, although it was not very pleasant with all the traffic rushing past. We biked through Johnsonville, and into Churton Park. From there I went home, and John went down to Middleton Road to bike to Tawa to fetch the car. I had done 47 km. John another 3 km more.

It had been a pretty good ride, despite my initial misgivings. And I had conquered my fear of biking up Ngauranga Gorge.

Folding Goldies Ride – Whiteman’s Valley

I’m getting very much behind on my blog posts. I must write up our last Folding Goldies ride, as the invitation for the next ride has already arrived in our inbox. So here goes …

On Wednesday 7 June, the Folding Goldies ride took us to Whiteman’s Valley. Alastair, the organiser, described the ride like this, on Meet Up: “Whiteman's Valley is one of the nicest rides in the Wellington region – the word 'bucolic' was invented for places like this”.

The weather had not looked promising all week, but on the day, it was OK-ish. Still overcast, but at least not raining. As the day wore on, more and more blue sky appeared, and while riding down the valley it was actually sunny. But it was COLD!

We took the train to Wallaceville from Petone. Alastair, Nigel and Colin were on the train already. Doff and Neil met us at Wallaceville. They live in Waikanae, so they drove down to meet us at the station.

Waiting for the train at Petone (photo by John)

We all met up at Wallaceville Station – from left: Nigel, Désirée, Neil, Doff, Colin, Alastair
 (photo by John)

From Wallaceville, it was straight up the hill towards Whiteman’s Valley. On our e-bikes John and I got there well before the others, so we had to wait for them to catch up.

Wallaceville Road is quite steep in places (photo by John)

All caught up (photo by John)

The valley is lovely but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had on previous occasions – mainly because it was so cold. Also, when you are talking with others, and keeping a look-out for them, you don't take quite so much notice of the surroundings, or get as much enjoyment from them.

Doff on Whiteman’s Valley Road. The sky gradually cleared from grey to a more pleasant blue
 (photo by John)

John and Neil. Note John’s two cameras, one on his handlebar, and one underneath his saddle
 (photo by Alastair Smith)

As we rode past, we got a whiff of the distinctive, somewhat sour smell emanating
from the polythene-wrapped bales of silage (photo by John)

Whiteman’s Valley Road comes to an end at the junction with Johnsons Road and Blue Mountains Road. The Short Straw Café on Johnsons Road was not open, so we hurtled down Blue Mountains Road to have lunch at the Silverstream Bakery and Café at the bottom. Riding down the hill – for about 7 km – was great, but very hard on my gammy hands, as I have to bring my thumbs around on the handlebar so I don't loose my grip on the brakes, but I can't keep that position for very long – it hurts!

At the bottom of the hill (photo by John)

Lunch at the bakery was very pleasant – as Alastair said “It’s another place to put on our Folding Goldies’ list of cafés”.

Lunch at the Silverstream Bakery and Café (photo by John)

Afterwards, Alastair and Nigel took the train back to Wellington, Doff and Neil took the train back to Wallaceville (where their car was), and Colin, John and I rode down the Hutt River Trail back to Petone, where we had parked the car. All up, we did about 38 km. Colin, however, decided he would ride home from there, all the way to Titahi Bay. Fortunately he was riding an e-bike.

It was very, very cold coming down the Hutt River Trail, as the southerly had got up. I never warmed up all day, until I had sat by the heater at home for half an hour with a hot cup of coffee in my hand.

Folding Goldies Ride – Te Whiti Riser

Last Wednesday, 1 March, we went on another Folding Goldies ride. This time, the organiser Alastair Smith suggested exploring the relatively newly completed Te Whiti Riser track. This is a 3.3 km track that meanders from Te Whiti Park in Lower Hutt up the Eastern Hills to connect with the ridge track that runs along the top of the Wainuiomata Hill. It is not very steep – no more than a 7% gradient – and according to Alastair’s email, “comfortably wide”.

The plan was to take the train to Woburn Station, ride the track to the top (about 230m of climbing), admire the views, and ride back down the same way. Then bike to Petone for lunch somewhere, and take the train back into town. As an added interest, Simon Morton of RNZ's This Way Up had asked to come along on the ride, and would probably want to do some interviews with FG members.

We had heard about this track, and were keen to try it, so this was a good opportunity. But unfortunately, for John and me, this turned out to be one of our less successful rides.

Instead of taking the train to Woburn, we parked the car on the Petone foreshore, and biked up to Woburn station, to meet the others. It was a large group, 11 including Simon – we are growing! Though not all ride "foldies", we are mostly all “goldies”.

Nigel emerges from the train with his bike (photo by John)

Unfolding the folding bikes on the platform – with so many bikes on the train at once,
the folding bikes had to be folded to be allowed on (photo by John)

Simon had already started interviewing people on the train, and he lost no time in talking to those of us waiting on the platform as well.

Simon Morton interviews Colin on the train (photo by Alastair Smith)

Simon talks to Frank at Woburn Station (photo by John)

Introductions – Désirée, Nigel, Colin, Frank (photo by John)

A group photo taken by Simon Morton

Introductions over, we biked along Whites Line to Te Whiti Park, from where the track starts.

Negotiating the gate at the bottom of the track ... (photo by John)

... and off they go (photo by John)

Though the track was not steep, it was gravel, and it did meander up a steep hillside, with likely steep drops beside the track. Because of his balance limitations John decided to ride his non-electric Giant. It is lighter and easier to manoeuvre than the e-bike.

The track was not particularly steep (photo by John)

John and I negotiate a corner (photo by Simon Morton)

Under normal circumstances, the gradient should not have presented any difficulties, even with a non-electric bike. But John was having trouble. After only a fairly short distance, he had to stop and catch his breath. Determined to keep going, he waited a few minutes and carried on. But standing astride his bike, leaning over his handlebars, panting and out of breath, he worried me.

Alastair waited for us to catch up (photo by John)

Alastair, concerned not to lose anyone, waited for us to catch up. “How are you going?” John wasn’t going too well, as for me, my response was “I’m hating it!”.

I was riding my e-bike – being such a sook when it comes to hills. But I found the track hard to negotiate because of its narrowness (only 1.2m wide) and the tight corners at times. And the drop to the side of the track freaked me out big time. I have mentioned in other blog posts how I have a fear of ditches and drops (going back to childhood days), which sets up a panic response. On this track, I was getting plenty of adrenalin surges. 

John had several stop/start goes, each time having to wait to recover before being able to go on. I was really concerned, and reminded him not to be a hero. It would be better to stop before things got even worse. We had a slightly longer stop at a bridge spanning a bush-clad gully. It was shady there, and a bit cooler than the brilliantly sunny and hot hillside we had just come up.

Another breather – in the shade – with Alastair keeping an eye on us

We carried on for another short distance, but finally John gave in, and agreed to stop. We didn’t want this to develop into a major emergency with a chopper having to medevac him out. We returned to the shade of the bridge, and told Alastair that we would wait there while the rest of the group rode to the top and came back. 

It was a good place to sit and wait. A bit of a cut-out on the bank made a useful seat, and after a while we amused ourselves taking photos. And the rear-facing camera on time-lapse on John’s bike took several pictures of us as well.

Recovering in the shade (photo by John’s time-lapse camera)

The sound of the cicadas was deafening! (photo by John)

The bridge clings to the edge of the gully, following its contours (photo by John)

John takes a photo of the gully below (photo by John)

Several large trees had been cut down to make room for the bridge (photo by John)

Supplejack vines hang from the trees (photo by John)

I wandered down the track to take some pictures of the view, which looks out over Lower Hutt.

A glimpse of the Hutt Valley down the track

Lower Hutt and the Western Hills

The track goes somewhere in amongst the trees and scrub to the top

It is a real pity we didn’t make it to the top, because the view is wonderful, looking out over the Hutt Valley, and out towards the harbour on one side, and down into the Wainuiomata Valley on the other – or so one of them told us.

The view from the top (photo by Alastair Smith)

Before long, the group returned, having made it to the top and back. Simon was among the first to get back. He is quite a seasoned cyclist and mountain bike rider. We really enjoyed his TV series “Along for the Ride”, a couple of years ago. 

Simon was among the first to get back. Note all the recording gear
hanging around his neck (photo by John)

Simon enquires how John is feeling now

A satisfied bunch of riders returns from the top (photo by John)

We gingerly made our way back down to the bottom of the track. Simon had a very useful tip for me. If I lowered my seat, I would have more control and I would be able to put a foot on the ground if I felt “unsafe” on tight corners. I did as he suggested, and the way down felt much less panicky. It really is a lovely track – barring any health or panic issues …

It really is a lovely track (photo by John)

Nearly there …

When everyone had got to the bottom of the track, and Alastair had counted us to make sure all were present and correct, Simon left the group. This was “work” for him after all, and he had to get back to the office. He promised to let us know when the programme would be aired on Radio NZ – probably in three or four weeks.

Note (added 5 April): The programme was aired on Radio NZ's "This Way Up" on 1 April, with the title "The bike gang with gold cards". It can still be accessed online here. (If you can't see the photos in this link, "refresh" the link, and the photos should appear.)

Dayll and Steven left the group along the way as well, so there were only eight of us left to have lunch at the Esplanade Cabaret on the Petone foreshore. This place was a revelation to us. We had biked past it numerous times, but didn’t know it was a café. The name Cabaret suggested a night time venue, so we never investigated.

It turned out to be a large and very busy café, upstairs, featuring a deck with a wonderful view out to the harbour. And they make the best iced coffee we have had anywhere in a long time …

Lunch at the Esplanade Cabaret in Petone (photo by John)

The view from the deck

After lunch, some took the train back to Wellington, and some decided to bike back. For John and me it was just a very short distance back to where we had parked the car.

By the time we got back to the car, John was feeling so awful, that I thought I should take him into A&E to have his heart checked out.

I think it was the right thing to do. They did the usual tests to see if he had suffered a heart attack. Negative, fortunately. But obviously something had happened that was not right. His heart suffers from the occasional “go-slow” (bigeminy), where effectively his heart rate goes down to about half of what it should be. We think that this is what caused him to not be able to cope with what normally would have been a relatively easy ride.

The hospital kept him in overnight and he did a treadmill test the next morning, which he managed OK. He came home later that day, but he is not quite back to his usual self yet. Let’s hope he comes right soon.

Note: Thank you to Simon and Alastair for sharing their photos.

Folding Goldies ride – Waikanae to Paekakariki

On Wednesday 1 February, we went on a Folding Goldies ride. Alastair billed it as “Kapiti Koastal Kruising”. In other words, we were going to ride the Kapiti Coastal Cycle Trail from Waikanae to Paekakariki. And, he said in his email, “The real summer of course starts in February”, which was a comment on the really lousy summer Wellington is having so far this year. Fine days have been few, and calm days have been even rarer. The eternal and infernal wind is driving everyone batty.

This day too, the forecast was fairly grim – overcast, possible rain, and galeforce northwesterlies. One of the group emailed early in the day “Not going, too windy”. Well we went anyway. It wasn’t nearly as windy up the coast, and besides, for much of the way, it was a tailwind. And the rain held off until we got home. It was a great ride, and we had a really good turn-out too, with a total of nine people.

We took the train at Takapu Road as usual, and we had to be in another carriage as there were already three bikes in the other. So it was just us until Paekakariki, when a woman with a bike boarded, saw our bikes and said “Are you Folding Goldies?”. She was Dayll, a friend of Alastair’s, and was going along too.

At Waikanae we got to meet the others – John B, Gottfried and Alastair, all of whom were Folding Goldie “oldies”. For Dayll, Steve, Nigel and Colin this was the first FG ride, but hopefully not the last. We already knew Colin, from Scottish country dancing.

Introductions over, we were ready to set off from Waikanae Station (photo by John)

John B, who is a Kapiti Coast resident, showed us a different way to get to the river track – along SH1 for a short distance until the bridge and off to the left onto a track that went under the bridge. Quite a scary (to me) steep gravelly bit before we got onto the track. Then it was just pleasant cycling, although some of the track had recently been graded, and that had left some bumpy ridges on the track.

Alastair on the track that emerges from under the road bridge (photo by John)

A couple of walkers were captured by John’s rear-mounted camera (photo by John)

From the Otaihanga Domain, some of us rode the estuary track to get to Manly Street in Paraparaumu. Others, including John, went by the road. John doesn't like the narrow and winding boardwalks. For Dayll and Gottfried, the estuary track was new territory, which they enjoyed.

At the end of the estuary track (photo by John)

We stopped at the 180 Degrees Café in Paraparaumu for coffee and scones – excellent cheese scones!

Coffee and scones (photo by John)

Ready to go back on the road (photo by John)

When we were ready to leave, I nearly lost my Gold Card. It was in my pocket, along with the key to my bike lock. It must have fallen out when I got the key to unlock my bike. Fortunately one of the others spotted in on the ground. Phew!

Nigel took this photo of John and me, and Dayll ahead of us, on the waterfront track
(photo by Nigel Roberts)

We rode on the nice waterfront track, and then we all seem to have gone different ways to Poplar Avenue and the start of Te Ara Whareroa. I followed two people down towards Raumati, then stopped to wait for John and the others, but they didn't come. They had turned inland earlier. The other two had disappeared from view, and I wasn't sure which way they'd gone. For a moment I thought I was lost, my sense of direction being quite useless. But luckily, John and I had done the same ride the previous week, and I soon recognised the route through the Kapiti College carpark, and made my way to Poplar Ave. Eventually everyone made it there.

“The obligatory group pic” as Alastair called it (photo by Alastair Smith)

Colin and Gottfried pause on Te Ara o Whareroa while Alastair digs out his camera
(photo by John)

Alastair and Nigel (photo by John)

From the end of the Whareroa track, we rode along the foreshore, and ended up at the Beach Deli for lunch. John and I shared a small pizza, which was very nice.

Lunch at the Beach Deli (photo by John)

Only six of us took the 2:15pm train back to Wellington, having lost Dayll and Steve who live in Paekakariki, and John B who returned to Paraparaumu where he lives. Colin decided to get off at Pukerua, intending to bike the rest of the way home to Titahi Bay.

Only six of us took the train back to Wellington (photo by John)

It had been a good ride – 26 km all up – and the weather held off. We got home just before the rain set in.

We were really lucky the ride had not been planned for Thursday, as we had some really heavy rain, all day, with the result that there was flooding in some areas, especially by the Hutt River.