hunterville to Palmerston north 80 km

hunterville to Palmerston north 80 km

packing up the tent I take the fly off only for it to rip - uv damage from being in the sun to many times . yep the tent is dieing a few weeks ago the zips stopped working so its time to go looking for a new house (a new tent : ) just one more pice of gear that has wore out and needs replacing ( i wonder if there is any out door shop sales still on ?  will have a look when I get to Palmerston north ) once I get the bike pack I get on the road heading for hunterville 

riding up a few more up hills before I get into the town of  hunterville. after getting some photos I head to the cafe where I stopped at a few years ago when I last took this road. to find out if the food is still as good as It was last time - getting a seafood basket I work my way though my meal as I look on the ipad to see if I missed much over the last few days riding on back roads and working out where im going to spend the night as well as working out which road to take to get to palmerston north - having come this way more then a few time going from/to Palmerston north to taupo I keep an eye out for other roads to try : ) 

back on the road I decide to head down S.H.1 ( yes there are better roads then S.H.1 for riding this way but I like to mix things up : ) riding along  S.H.1 seeing whats changed over the years ( thinking that it may not of been the best idea to have that fish basket meal as my tammer not to happy o well live and lean : ) the road tends down hill with just the odd hill to climb over until I get to the town of bull’s where there’s a long bridge ( cycles use the footpath on this bridge ) as I leave bull’s  the road start’s to climb a bit and the wind  ( that was a nice tail wind ) is now a head wind so its a slow ride over the last 20 km or so into Palmerston north. once I get in to town I head over to the 2 hand store to see if there is any tents ( no luck there) before heading over to the info center to find out whats on - there’s a  fun walk on today starting in a few hours - at 7 km it's a nice easy walk in the afternoon sun ( when I stayed in palmerston north for a few months I used to do this fun walk ) 

well I only done around 70 km so far today so I diside to do the fun walk ( one of the nice things about bike touring is getting so fit that a 7 km fun walk is just a nice walk in the sun ) as I have a few hours to kill I head off to the libley for 2 hours or so before heading down to the start of the fun walk ( getting some odd looks from some  of the walkers and runners at the event as I take my walking gear out of the bike trailer (shoes, bag’ 2 small drank bottles and change of chose). after paying my $3 enter I head out side to wait for the start with the other walkers/runners ( over a 1000 people here for tonights fun run ) then its start time with the runners starting 5 mins before the walkers . as I get under way I just pace myself (just like I do on long fun rides) passing people (i’m a some what fast walker when I want to be : ) with the walk passing though the domain? then along the river back before heading back on footpaths and the odd road I say hi to a few people as I pass. there is a few water stops along the way ( as I have the 2 water bottles I just keep walking at around the same pace ) at around the 5 km mark my back locks up (from the jarring it got riding the gravel roads the day before ) I keep walking though the pain ( well how else am I going to get back to my bike  

: ) 

some times I put a hand on my back to help deal with the pain as I walk - i all ready look some what odd as I walk with one arm moving in time with my legs and the other hand not moving much ( getting my arms and legs moving at the same time is not some thing I can do well ) as I come up to the finish line I have a look at my time - well the clock for walker says 45 mins - my time in the past was around the 50 min mark so I must be getter a bit fitter. after the event I head over to a friends place doing a side trip to get some tea at subway before getting to my friends place where Im spending the night .