More notes from my tour aotearoa ride... (hopefully I will finish typing up my notes from my 2016 ta ride before I start a 2017 ride along the ta route... : )
Hunterville to ashhurst
Leaving hunterville the route of the tour aotearoa takes me along sh1 for about 5 km before turning off on to sh54 - passing the vinegar hill camping site (free camping?) where I have stayed at a few times over the years - no stopping for me this time as I turn off sh54 on to back roads (a fun mix of gravel and tarseal roads) that led me to rangiwahia where I stop for a break
after looking around the domain to decide if to stop for the day there or to keep going (there are camping sites at the domain ) in the end I decided to keep going and see where I will end up - the ta route takes me along back roads towards Palmerston North passing through the village of apiti (a place I ended up riding though on a few other rides over the years - mostly on day rides out of Palmerston North)
on one of the gravel roads its deep sand/ gravel what makes it hard going - at one point I saw a person on a (road) motorcycle decide to turn around as it was to hard for then to ride in it - getting to totara reserve (one of the photo control points as part of the ta route /ride) just on dark I decided to put the lights on and keep riding though to ashhurst where I set up camp at the ashhurst domain (a place I have stay at more than a few times over the years) -
Ashhurst to eketahuna
After packing up camp I first head into Palmerston North for a bit of shopping before taking the pahiatua track (a tarseal road over the hill to pahiatua - it's a road that gets used most when the main road though the gorge is closed - most of the time it has only a few? Cars and the odd truck using it - I know it well as I used to use it for training back when I stay for a bit in Palmerston North as well as using it to get between Palmerston North and South to eketahuna /Wellington or North to hastings instead of riding though the gorge)
after riding over the hill I head on to a rough gravel road for a few km before getting back to tarseal roads to the town of pahiatua - it's a small town with a very wide main St as when the town was first planned /layed out the railway was to run down the middle of the main St of the town - as it happens that never happened so it's now has a park /green space in the middle on the main St - for many years Palmerston North had the rail line run though the middle of town with the the rail yards/train station being first where the square is now before moving south a bit (where the railway resuve is now)
After pahiatua I head along back roads towards eketahuna getting there just on dark (remembering to get a photo of the big kiwi (another of the photo control points with the ta route /ride) before heading to the camp ground at the domain for the night
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