Hawke's Bay Cycle Trails – Days 5 & 6

Recently we went to Hawke’s Bay for a few days’ riding the wonderful cycling trails in the region. This post is about day 5. You can check out days 1& 2 here, day 3 here, and day 4 here.

Day 5 – Monday 2 December
The Puketapu Loop, and a drive to Waimarama

In the previous three days of cycling, we had ridden 120 kms, so on this last day, we decided to take it a bit easier, and bike the Puketapu Loop, which is only 18 kms.

We rode this track last March, when I had only just started biking, and I had such a lot of trouble with the hill by the Puketapu Pub, that John thought that we should do it the other way round this time, and avoid the worst of the hill.

The track starts at the Pettygrew Green Arena, from where we headed onto the stopbank, turned right, and crossed the bridge.

This is a really lovely trail. The landscape is quite varied, from river, to corn fields, to crops of various kinds; orchards of apricots, cherries, and kiwifruit; vineyards; and also trees and bush.

It was not very windy, just breezy enough to stop it getting too hot. In some places, clumps of trees near the track looked very inviting, and I thought that we should have brought a picnic rug, some lunch and our books. It would have been nice to lounge and read under the trees for a while …

It would have been nice to lie in the shade of these trees, with a good book … (photo by John)

Other bushy areas were just very pleasant to ride through, even if we had to negotiate a fallen tree.

The track ran under lovely trees (photo by John)

I wonder if this tree came down in Saturday’s galeforce winds (photo by John)

It wasn’t long before we arrived at Puketapu – a small settlement with a pub and a store – the half-way mark of the Puketapu Loop. John suggested we stop at the pub for a coffee, but I remembered the definitely mediocre coffee (and very so-so lunch) we’d had there in March, so we opted for an icecream cone from the shop instead. 

Icecream cones in front of the Puketapu Store (photo by John, with his camera fixed on his bike!)

We sat on the seat in the shade in front of the shop, and enjoyed our icecreams. I looked at the gradient of the road in front of us, that had caused me so much trouble last March. It now didn’t seem to be so terrible. I have definitely progressed!

Quite soon after Puketapu, we came to a beautiful park with a small lake, with a jetty and several small islands, and grazing sheep. It looked so lovely we crossed over the cattle stop and went in for a look. We thought we might be able to ride around the lake. There was a picturesque stone bridge, but as we rode over it, and headed up the track beyond it, we suddenly became aware that this was probably not a public park, but a private property. There had been nothing to say so at the entrance, but we thought we had better not go any further.

Such a pretty little stone bridge (photo by John)

Oh, to own such a beautiful property! (photo by John)

We have just used Google Maps on “streetview” to look at the entrance, and we discovered that the property is called “Bridgewater”. The name is on the fence by the entrance, but we didn’t notice it at the time. Isn’t Google amazing?

So back on the track, which soon crossed the road, and went back onto the stopbank, past vineyards and orchards, and into more lovely shady lanes.

Beautiful gum trees … (photo by John)

… and shady lanes (photo by John)

It was an easy 18km ride, very enjoyable, and by 12:30 we were back at the car. We went into Havelock North for lunch, and then had a walk and window-shop around Havelock. It really is a very pleasant small town.

With the afternoon ahead of us and no biking to do, we drove up to Te Mata Peak. Driving up the section of Waimarama Road that was part of the Tukituki Loop which we had biked two days earlier, it actually looked worse than when we were riding it. Perhaps it was just as well that I hadn’t been up there by car before biking it, because I am sure I would have told John to “forget it!”.

From Te Mata Peak, the highest point of the Craggy Range, the view is spectacular, over the river and the hills and the sea beyond. We looked down onto the Tukituki River, and much of the Tukituki Loop that we biked. Actually, I felt quite impressed with what we had done. That trail sure was a challenge, but seeing it from the top, it seemed quite amazing that I actually did it. We identified the hills where the road wriggled in and out of gullies that were such hard work.

The Craggy Range seen from its highest point, Te Mata Peak

From Te Mata Peak, we could see the Tukituki River, and beyond the hills to the sea. Craggy Range Winery is at bottom right of the picture (photo by John)

Red Bridge, from where the Tukituki Loop returns back down the valley (photo by John)

While we were at the top of Te Mata Peak, we talked to a retired Swedish couple who had walked up (wow!). They told us that they come to enjoy Hawke’s Bay’s summer for five months every year, to escape the Swedish winter. Rather nice!

We then carried on up Waimarama Road, and drove to Ocean Beach, where we took a walk along the water's edge. We are not really swimmers, and I certainly don’t like swimming in the sea (I hate the thought of being touched by creepy things floating about). But I took my sandals off and walked in the shallow water, until John noticed that there were jellyfish on the wet sand at that part of the beach. I made a quick retreat onto the dry! They didn’t seem to be everywhere though. It did look like a nice beach for surfing, and there were a few people swimming and playing on the beach.

Coming down the road towards Ocean Beach (photo by John)

Ocean Beach (photo by John)

Then back over the hill to the next beach at Waimarama. There is quite a settlement there, some 1960s or 1970s style houses, and some brand new big ones. Not a terribly attractive place, really, but I believe the beach is a very popular one. However, at the place where we turned around, by the exit of a stream, there was a sign warning that this part of the beach was dangerous for swimming.

Waimarama, but this part of the beach was not suitable for swimming (photo by John)

Bare Island, off the coast near Waimarama (photo by John)

On the way back, another view of Te Mata Peak (photo by John)

It was lovely driving in the countryside. New Zealand really is such a beautiful country. I can understand why overseas visitors rave about it. And aren’t we the lucky ones to be living here!


Day 6 – Tuesday 3 December
Going home

On Tuesday we made an early start on our way home. The trip was uneventful, except for a stop at the Clock Shop in Waipawa. The outside of the shop is very appealing (in a “twee” kind of way), and it caught our eye when we came through here in March. But it was closed that day, so this time we just had to stop and take a look inside.

The Clock Shop in Waipawa (photo by John, March 2013)

Wow, I don’t think I have ever seen such a huge variety of clocks and watches – ranging from very modern and colourful, to the kitschy and gimmicky, to cuckoo clocks of all kinds, to the old and venerable grandfather clocks.

The shop is owned by Jim and Anne Greeff. Jim is a British-trained horologist, and he repairs and restores clocks of all descriptions. He took time to talk to us, and show us around, telling us about some of the clocks. He showed us one grandfather clock of which he had repaired the movement. Sadly, the owners had got the case spraypainted a shiny jet-black, to fit in with their décor. It had once had a beautiful grain which was still visible under the paint, and I could tell from the way he talked that Jim did not approve of what they had done to the clock.

Jim and John got to discussing clock repairs and clock innards, and he told John that he was currently trying to fix a cuckoo clock with an electronic movement. It had fallen off the wall, and he was trying to figure out the mechanism that made the birdie come out, so he could fix it. He took John into his workshop, and the two of them pored over it, with John offering suggestions (he has a lot of experience with things electronic). I wanted to take a picture of them while they were both bent over this clock, but unfortunately Jim looked up at just the wrong moment.

How to fix this cuckoo clock? Jim looked up at just the wrong moment

After an interesting half hour in Waipawa, we headed to Woodville, where we had an early lunch at our favourite lunch stop – the Bridge Café – just before the Manawatu Gorge. Then, home. It had been a great holiday.

The Bridge Café, across the bridge, just before the Manawatu Gorge (photo by John)

Hawke's Bay Cycle Trails – Day 3

Last week we went to Hawkes Bay for a few days’ riding the wonderful cycling trails in the region. This is the post about the third day of that holiday. You can check out days 1 & 2 here.

Day 3 – Saturday 30 November
Hastings to Havelock North, then Tukituki Loop

This was to be a “killer” of a day, but I didn’t know that when we set out. Having said that, it was a great ride, and at the end, I was immensely proud of myself for having completed 50 kms, much of it on a Grade 3 trail!

We were going to ride the Tukutuki River Trail. I thought we were just going to do the flat part of the trail, because as you know, I don’t like hills. And since it was an “easy ride” from Hastings to Havelock North, from where that trail starts, we set off on our bikes, right from our cottage.

The whole Napier/Hastings/Havelock North area is very bike-friendly. Many roads have either a dedicated cycle track separate from the road, or cycle lanes on the road, delineated with green lines, and cycle symbols painted on the road. There are also reminders to motorists that “Cycle lanes are for cyclists”, with a warning not to use them for parking.

There are bike lanes on many roads (photo by John)

It was about 4 kms from the cottage to Havelock North. Along most of the length of Havelock Road, there was a separate foot/cycle path, where posts on each side of every driveway warned cyclists to watch for exiting vehicles.

The foot/cycle path along Havelock Road had warning posts at every driveway (photo by John)

Havelock North’s town centre is very pleasant, and there is a row of nice cafés opposite a park. Of course, with a hard day's riding ahead of us, we just had to fortify ourselves with coffee and a muffin, didn’t we?

After that, we made use of the public toilet facilities across the road, and the “automatic loos” made me laugh. As you shut the door, a male American voice tells you to push the green button to lock the door, and when you do, it tells you that the door is locked and that you’ve got ten minutes to do your business. It was almost tempting to stay in there for ten minutes to see what would happen if you outstayed your welcome, but I had better things to do with my time …

Then, there is no flush button on the toilet, but a notice tells you that it will flush when you wash your hands or when you unlock the door (for those mucky people who don’t bother to wash!). The washing facilities are three sensor-driven automatic dispensers in a row: soap, water, dryer. And lo! as the water ran to wash my hands, the toilet flushed. I thought this was really funny and laughed out loud. Maybe I have a warped sense of humour. When I came out, there were some people waiting outside, and I wondered whether they’d heard me cackling …

Right, on with more serious matters.

We headed out along Te Mata Road, towards the Tukituki Loop. It was uphill – slightly – but it slowed me down. And the wind was blowing, but it wasn’t too bad at that stage. As the day wore on, it got stronger and stronger, a real struggle in places where we had to head into it. The forecast had been for strong or galeforce winds in Hawke’s Bay. When we watched the news that night, we saw that the wind had caused a great deal of damage in Auckland and Christchurch, and near our home, the Johnsonville Christmas parade had had to be cancelled.

Eventually we got to the top of the hill, and I enjoyed freewheeling down towards the corner where the Tuki Kitchen Café is. Only it is not called that anymore, it is now called the Tandem Café.

Having “just” had coffee, we didn’t stop, but went up the hill towards the top of the Tukituki Loop. This is where things got dodgy. When we set out in the morning, I thought we were going to ride just the lower (flat) part of the Tukituki Loop. But sadly, my sense of direction is quite useless, and I have to trust John completely in that. And he directed us up the hill, to do the complete loop. Traitor!

OMG, it was such hard work! Riding up the hill, on the road, I managed it, in first gear, but cripes! it was hard. In Jonathan Kennett’s book “The NZ Cycle Trails”, when describing this trail, he writes “on the way, you must ride the ‘Mad Mile’ – a section of Waimarama Road with no shoulder space”. It was a 100km speed limit road, and quite a few cars whizzed by, while I tried to keep as close to the edge as I could. Having a rear-view mirror on my handlebar helped.

I was grateful for the trees along the road, providing patches of shade in which to stop and catch my breath. I must say, John was very patient, waiting for me to catch up; and very encouraging: “You can do it!” and “You’re doing very well”. When we got to the top, there was a gorgeous view over the river below. I had to puff out, so I stopped to take some pictures.

The view over the Tukituki River valley, from the top of hill on the Waimarama Road

Looking back over the Tukituki River

Then we freewheeled down the hill, wheee! For a while we rode on a more or less flat track along the base of the spectacular Craggy Range and Te Mata Peak. As we got close to the Craggy Range Winery, the track became a smooth “yellow brick road”, which lasted for about a kilometer. Very nice to ride on.

We rode along the base of Te Mata Peak

The “yellow brick road” along the Craggy Range Winery frontage

For a while we rode through pleasant scenery, on a reasonably flat track, edged with trees providing shade. Eventually we arrived at Red Bridge, which we crossed, and now the return journey down to the coast began. But if I thought it would all be downhill from here, I had another think coming …

Pleasant flat riding under the trees (photo by John)

Soon after the bridge, the road started to climb again (photo by John)

On the other side of the river, the Tukituki Road was varied – sometimes gentle rises, sometimes thankfully flat. But then we came to a set of steep hills. Steeper than anything we’d met so far, and in some places I couldn’t ride, I had to get off and walk. Every time we thought the next downhill would take us down to the river, we’d go round a bend in the road and then it was another uphill and another gully. Down, and back up, several times.

John was very attentive – in the sections where I had to walk, he would even park his bike and walk down to meet me and take my bike, so I wouldn’t have to push it up the hill! Such a sweetie! But I told him that I would be fine, and could do it myself – in fact, the bike gave me something to lean on!

At one of the “peaks”, John took a photo of a sign pointing to the lookout – which just goes to show that we had got to a fair height. He interpreted it as "Look out! Hills!"

While sitting in the shade of a tree for a bit, we were overtaken by a young woman – wearing lycra cycling gear, so she was probably one of those fit young things who made a habit of riding hills – and even she complained of how steep and how windy it was.

We had struggled up a hill high enough to warrant a Lookout sign! (photo by John)

The view from the rolling hills (photo by John)

Finally we got to the turn-off at Moore Road, which was straight, and going downhill to the river. Ah, the relief!

Moore Road. Ah, the relief of a straight downhill to the river! (photo by John)

At the bottom of Moore Road, we finally joined the cycle track again, on top of the stopbank. But it was another 15 kms to Black Bridge. And ouch! my behind was sore, my legs were sore, and my hands were sore. And though we were now more or less on the flat, we were riding on the lime sand path, which was not completely smooth, and we were struggling against the wind. A really bad headwind. The only redeeming thing about the wind was that if it hadn’t been blowing, it would have been too hot. As it was, I was so hot, that my face was all encrusted with salt from dried-up perspiration! The temperature reached 28 degrees during the day.

The Craggy Range seen from across the other side of the river. Note how the trees and grass are bending in the wind!

We were now back on the river flats, where there were orchards, and fields with young corn (maize) growing in disciplined rows. One orchard wasn’t taking any chances with its crop: there was netting draped over all the trees. We couldn’t quite make out what fruit they were bearing – perhaps cherries. The mind boggles at the miles and miles of netting this would require!

The orchardist made sure the birds weren’t going to get any of the fruit! (photo by John)

A field of newly sprouting corn (photo by John)

Finally, finally, we reached Black Bridge, where we turned back inland to complete the Tukituki Loop. And – hallelujah! – there was the sign pointing the way to the Bivvy Café, only 700 metres to go!

We had been to the Bivvy Café last time we were here, in March, and we were looking forward to stopping there. In fact, the thought of a fruit smoothie at the Bivvy had sustained me for the last 15 kms! The café is actually just a coffee caravan, parked in a cleared space among the vines, with seats under some shade sails. We were the only customers, and Kate, the owner, said that it had been very quiet, probably because of the wind. And as if to prove her point, the shade sails flapped furiously in the wind. But also, this was the day of the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, so many of the local hardcore cyclists may have been away.

We enjoyed our smoothie, and just a small snack, because we were planning to have lunch at the Tandem Café, another 40 minutes’ riding (according to Kate), further up the valley.

The Bivvy Café

Interesting clouds gather over the hills (photo by John)

Actually, it only took us only 30 minutes to get to the Tandem Café, because we now had the wind behind us. What bliss!

This café had changed owners since we were here in March, and they now also hired out bikes and tandem bikes, one of which was on display alongside the terrace where we had our lunch.

A tandem bike – available to rent (photo by John)

The inside of the café was decorated with bicycle wheels of all types and sizes, some quite old, and some modern or relatively new.

Anyone would think this was a cyclists’ café! (photo by John)

We felt we had deserved our lunch after such a long and exhausting ride, but frankly, my appetite just wasn’t what it usually is. And the ride wasn’t quite finished yet. We still had to bike back to Hastings! Up one more b… hill to get to Havelock North, and then another few more kilometres back to our cottage.

As we pulled up outside the cottage driveway, my bike computer showed 49 kms. And would you believe it? John carried on for another 500 metres, just so he could make it a round 50 kms! I suppose I could have too, but NO-O-O! All I wanted was to get off that bike!

Later, in the beautiful, soft early evening light, John took some photos of the trees and the sheep in the paddock next to the cottage. And a while later we were treated to a wonderful sunset. A very satisfying finish to a long and arduous day’s cycling.

The trees seem to glow in the early evening light (photo by John)

The Craggy Range, seen from our cottage (photo by John)

We were treated to a beautiful sunset (photo by John)

I must admit I was pretty chuffed with myself for having achieved (nearly) 50 kms in one day. Now I know that I can manage at least some of the hills, and some of the road cycling conditions that are graded “Level 3 – Intermediate”. Which means that it will give us lots more options of tracks to try on the great Nga Haerenga (NZ Cycle Trails). Bring it on!

Postscript: John tells me that, now that we have new, thicker tyres on our bikes, the mileage reading should be increased by 3 percent, since the circumference of the wheels is that little bit bigger, so we cover that little bit more ground for every revolution. Well, he is a scientist!

So I did more than 50 kms, 50.47 kms, in fact! (49+3%= 50.47.