The long and the straight

Day 15. Whats another 25km? 25 too many!

Waingaro to Waihi.
Daily total: 134km Running total: 795km

The Christmas break is over. Time to get the old legs up and running again. The plan has altered*. Going to head on over to Tauranga for New Years Eve. Last new years was spent doing the night shift at work and I was tucked up in bed way before the year was out. This year will be different. So I will have to cover about 200km in 3 days! That is 200km divided by 3! In 3 days! 

The route contained no major hills. Just a (reasonably) flat (I am getting used to the Kiwi definition of flat) burn to Waihi. Undulating.  That is the word to describe the riding conditions. Also there were some proper flats. Like Dutch standard of flat. Long, long flats, that just went on forever. I started to get 90 Mile Beach flashbacks! Where are the corners? THERE MUST BE AN UNMOVABLE OBJECT AT SOME POINT? TURN! TURN! Ah something in the road...I can cycle round it. Ah...some form of corner.  It least it is something. 

Spot the corner! Cash prize for the winner!

At about the 110km I arrive in Paeroa. The birth place of L&P! A Kiwi institution! I heard from questionable sources that, by law, all Kiwis have to visit Paeroa at least once in their lives! My questionable sources are confidential. Sorry.

Me and L&P!** (Should be L&P and I but it dont sound good)

Whilst in Paeroa, I came across the Hauraki Rail Trail and only 22km to Waihi. The afternoon was young (5pm) so I thought why not. What is another 22km? Means 22km less to do the next day.  It is worth doing. It is pretty gentle and coming from the Paeroa end, you get to go through a tunnel to be greeted by this:

Don't worry. I didn't steal the gorge and upload it! This is just a photo of the gorge. The real gorge is still there.

 

Sites from the rail trail.

More rail trail sites.

Road kill update: Too much of it. I'm bored of it. Especially the rancid smell of sun cooked decaying roadside corpses.

Back to the original question of 'what is another 25km?', it was too much. Pushed it too hard. Knees screaming with hatred towards me, using every curse word they know in their limited knee vocabulary, directed solely at me. Walking was a chore. One point during the night, my legs had actually gone to sleep. Refusing to move at all. I will have to see what state they are in tomorrow. 


* It is strange writing in the present tense about a series of events that occurred in the pas tense. The joy of being backlogged with entries. It is even stranger that the notes I am writing from are in the past tense. I should have consulted the book first to find what tense I am in. Lessons learned. 

** Not a selfie. This is an example of a long dead practice of talking to strangers and watching them get confused by what button to press!  

Above and below: Sites from on the road

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