Day 25 Te Marua to Lower Hutt

Te Marua to Woburn, Lower Hutt: An easy cruise down the Hutt river to our friends Barry and Yu Cong

We stay at Fantail cottage as long as we can, checking out at 10am. Today we want to relax and savour the (almost) last part of our ride. The trike has another flat tyre! It was okay last night, so it may be a slow leak. I pump it up and it stays that way, so I’ll deal with it properly later. The owners meet us at the top of the driveway, they are cyclists too, it’s very good to meet them and talk – I prefer the feeling of staying with someone to just having a nice place to stay. I meant to video my descent of the epic driveway but no video is here - I must have hit the wrong buttons. A shame – should I ride back up and try again? No, I don’t want to keep Sau Keng waiting ;-)

We glide back to Te Marua and our ride beside the river starts.

First view of Hutt river

The Hutt river is looking clear and clean with a reasonable flow of water. Blackberry and gorse are prominent on the banks, along with a some regenerating bush (the gorse is okay, it’s a good nursery for natives) We come to a section Sau Keng rode last time we were here - and swore never to ride again. The alternative is 400m on SH2. Today Sau Keng chooses the track :-) I think she wants to measure her development. Considerable, the track is not a problem this time.

The day is overcast, calm, cool. Riding is nearly effortless at 23km/hr, Sau Keng’s cruise speed. It would be nice if it was bright and warm but we can't have everything all the time. This area beside the river is such community asset. It's huge, running the entire 30 kilometres to the sea, open to the public all the way. Today, Easter Monday, it’s very well used. We can thank the river’s propensity to flood much more than generous public planning. The sun comes out :-) But does not last, and gets cooler :-(

We like bridges, especially suspension bridges :-)

A small part of the endless park - all mown

The trails down the river, one on each side, are lovely – but lack toilets. We are in Lower Hutt now and still have not seen one – we would like to!

The track is closed here at Avalon (nothing saying why?) so we head into the town to find lunch and a toilet. “There’s one!” Locked :-( Finally in Lower Hutt centre we find a Ramen shop – lunch and a toilet.

Barry and Yu Cong's house is just 2km down river. It's very good to see them and Tristan again. Yu Cong and Tristan make us an excellent meal and we watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office together. Justice is still not done.

Statistics

Distance: 33.1 km

Climbed: 65 m

Time: 2:22