On the road again. Day 11 Highland Park to Miranda

We are back on the road, our next stop, at least of more than a day or two, will be Palmerston North when Sau Keng must work again for a couple of weeks - in Christchurch! We will fly from Palmerston North, work in Christchurch, fly back and continue our ride.

Starting again

We started today at 8 am and are meandering through suburbia aiming for Hunua and then Miranda. Very quickly we reach Huntington park and pause to visit Sonny, who will have an operation soon. Meandering on, we come to Redoubt Rd and detour again to visit Maureen and Robin. This takes a half hour as Maureen is out walking. We are riding again, but only get as far as the Botanical gardens where we stop again for morning tea. Not such a good idea as lots of people are here enjoying gardens on this beautiful day - so there is a queue and service is very slow. But we are relaxed - 60km is not a long ride, we can take a bit of time and enjoy it.

Te Irirangi Dr - We like the trees

Porchester Rd at the back of Manurewa

We finally leave suburbia at near Ardmore - it takes two goes! Riding along a footpath/cycleway on Walters Rd we are strongly directed into Sapwood Cr - there is no footpath continuing to Mill Rd. It should be okay I think, of course there will be an exit to Mill Rd along here somewhere. But there isn't - unless you count a weed covered gap leading to a plank across the roadside drain. So back we go to join the traffic on busy Mill Rd. Sometimes you get lucky :-) The cars clear and we ride down and turn into Hamlin Rd. Such a difference! It is so nice to have a country road to ourselves.

The clicking I had noticed before is still there, louder I think. I don't like it - from an aesthetic perspective and because something might be wrong and because I should have test ridden the bike more carefully. Very irritating.

There is a cafe at Ardmore airport - must remember, could be handy :-) Papakura - Clevedon Rd is not too busy. Ardmore Quary Rd - now we are really in the country. This takes us into the hills towards Hunua. As expected there is a decent climb, but not too steep, I feel pretty good at the top - and this might be the big climb today :-)

View back towards Clevedon valley from the top of Ardmore Quarry Rd

We continue, down, down - until we turn into Jones Rd - which goes right back up again, steeper and further than before, and I'm feeling rather more humble. The views are great though now we are up here.

I thought Hunua town was high but we came down a long way from the Jones Rd ridge to get here. We stop and order a pizza for lunch. Checking our progress, surprise, we have 45km to go!? We check our plans - 80km, I don't know where we got the idea of only having 60km - but it gave us a nice relaxed morning!

After lunch we ride with more purpose and are helped by an easy road through this beautiful valley, which is much larger and longer than I expected, and a nice breeze behind us. I was expecting a steep climb out of the end of the valley, but a modest slope seems to have been it. We are heading down towards SH2 :-)

We are at Mangatawhiri, just behind SH2 and have turned east towards Miranda. Here is the old Castle Cafe - boarded up and looking very sad. I used to enjoy the crazy optimism of it's design even though we rarely visited as we passed by.

This is a big wide road - with very little traffic :-) Easy riding and the breeze is still behind us, not far to go now, not at this speed.

I see the the sea! A nice view of the flag I made too

Finally I see the sea - and a long line of camper vans parked near the bird watching area. Dad and Jan used to go there in their bus to hang out with other campers they knew.

A few more kilometers and we arrive at Miranda holiday park. It's big and looks very well set up. We have a cabin to ourselves, also good - we chatted with a young Tour Aotearoa rider who will be in his tent tonight (rain is forecast at 4am) a comfortable cabin suits us much better. I'll have a swim in the hot pool tonight after dinner. Now it's time to unpack, relax, write.

Tree that caught Sau Keng's eye

No first I need to see if I can find and fix the clicking sound from my bike. ... One of the two bolts holding my left pedal was loose. Maybe that was it. I can't find anything else.

Statistics

Distance: 86.8km

Climbed: 950m

Time: 6:17