Annie is not so gentle...

Day 28. The heat, the hills, water rationing. 

Taihape to Kuripapango Campsite
Daily total: 82.23km Running total: 1710.674km

The back road route to the Gentle Annie

The route is beautiful but for such beauty, you have to work for it. The whole day was mainly uphill. Some gradual, some steep and some bordering on hateful.

At the summit of one of the larger hills, the road just plunges into the valley. Just mad downhill action. Sunglasses are a necessity for this as the insects bounce off you with force. The idea of one getting you in the eye at that speed sends shudders down my spine. 

On the way to the Gentle Annie.

Part of the Gentle Annie. 

Wearing headphones for this shot may not have been my best move of the day...

The view before the plunge.

If all directions were like this...

Not seen: guy throwing up due to the winding roads...

The start of the ear popping plunge.

The final hill was hateful. 2.5km covered in about an hour. Every 100m. Stop. Rest. Sip. Go. Repeated over and over again over a winding hill that never wanted to stop. I was a shambles reaching the top. The road was sticky due to the heat. Man, the heat. The unrelenting heat and patchy shade. So, so hot. Pretty much depleted my water supplies for the two days! Near on 6 liters reduced to one liter. There maybe issues tomorrow. This was at the end of the journey. 

So many trees. 

The campsite. Next to me was a cool American family who gave me beer.

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