ohakune to jerusalem

ohakune to jerusalem 55 km

after packing up my tent I have a chat to a bike touring that I met yesterday for an hour  of so I say good bye and head in to town to do some food shopping (getting 3 days of food as there is no shops past raetihi until wanganui ) and have a look around the train  staining? - there is part of the train that was recovered from the whangahu river  (from the  tangiwai disaster christmas eve 1953  where 151 people lost they lives) heading out of town towards the town of raetihi  where I head to the info center to get info on the river road .after having a chat to some people about the bike I start riding a long the river road (a road that took over 30 years to construct and was opened in 1934) .A few km out of raetihi it starts to rain (and it keeps raining on and off for the rest of the day) working over rolling hills to pipiriki where I start riding beside the whanganui river after pipiriki the road becomes a gravel road jus wide enough for two cars to pass if they take care climbing up to river vile? in a few places there is bad washboard so lot’s of bumps (from logging trucks?) after a slow and rught down (take your time on this road and ride with care) I get into the town of Jerusalem where I stop to have a look at the old convent and church (built in the 1890s ) after having a look around the grounds and inside the church I head back to my bike and try to work out where I will be spending the night as I was looking at the map some one asks me if I was lost after replaying that its hard to get lost on the river road as you can only end up in two places (ratihi and the other end of the road near wanganui) I said that I was just working out where I was going to spend the night after some more chatting to the people there They said to come up and stay the night in the convent (I seem to remember that people can stay there for about $25 ) after a bit of a wint? as there was a meeting going on. after being showing around the place I was offer some food (left over from the meeting?) then I was showing to the room where I was to sleep before the people that I had been chatting to went away (there is a care taker? that lives in a house near by) so I had a shower to wash off the mud and sweat off before going to bed for the night