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Sunday, 3rd October 2021

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 A better night's sleep last night although I was still first up. Today was to be our longest day but also our last.  Taking the main road home would only be about 40km, but we wanted quiet and scenic, so that meant 70 km. When we pitched the tent last night we realized we'd left the tent pegs in Opunake so improvised with twigs (above). Luckily there were no strong winds to test our improvising skills! It was cold this morning so all the layers were on again and the grass was wet, so time to bust out the Drysteppers. Not sure if Stratford was ready for this look - even Pete and Gary kept their distance.  But they did the job of keeping my feet warm and dry, so I was happy. First stop was a cafe for breakfast in Stratford township before grabbing some snacks at New World then turning east to hook up to Beaconsfield road. The scenery was lovely and with a few climbs, the layers started to come off.  The cloud almost lifted so we could see the mountain,  but never quite made it.
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Saturday 2nd October 2021

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 We fell asleep easily last night, but when I woke up needing to go to the toilet about 2.30am, I found it impossible to get back to sleep once I'd climbed back into my sleeping bag.  I blame the excitement of being back on the road again - even if it is just for three days.  At least in a campground you have the luxury of a TV room, so I went across to that so as not to disturb Pete with all my tossing and turning. Pete woke up about 6.30am and we had to wake Gary at 8am as we were getting hungry.  We had already packed up the tent and reattached our numerous little bags to the bikes and were ready to go.  So once Gary had packed up his solitary backpack, we cycled up to Opunake township for breakfast.  Found a great little cafe where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and coffee and then headed south on the main road, looking for the turnoff to Stratford.   We'd just crossed the bridge out of town when Gary suddenly remembered he'd left his one bag at the cafe.  One bag Gar
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Friday, 1st October 2021

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The forecast sun and clouds started off with quite a bit of rain which we hoped would clear by the time Gary had cycled over to our place. Gary arrived at our place about 10.15am, raindrops glistening off his smiling face and jacket from the shower which had just passed over.  He was keen to get going but I feared the rain wasn't done with us just yet.  We set off at 10.45am and five minutes later had pulled over to chuck our rain jackets on. They didn't stay on long though as we quickly warmed up on our long slow climb to Pukeiti gardens. We were rewarded for our efforts with vistas out over the green Taranaki countryside down to the Tasman sea.  About 10km into our ride, we entered the bush as we skirted round the edges of Egmont National Park. It was a very scenic ride up to the famous rhododendron gardens of Pukeiti. But best of all, just after we arrived it bucketed down. So what else to do but enjoy a leisurely lunch and coffee, happy to have escaped this downpour.  After
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Prologue

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With covid 19 raging around the world and our borders shut, we decided it was time to start exploring our own country by bike. So in preparation for a bigger tour we have planned over summer,  we thought we'd get in some training in our own backyard and cycle around our beautiful mountain.   We'd been talking about doing this for awhile and good friend Gary was keen to join us. In fact it was him who checked the weather for the weekend and said "Looks good!"  So I hurriedly sewed the extra velcro onto the bags we intended using and generally preparing everything we needed so we could be as lightweight and streamlined as possible,  without breaking the bank.  We got a good dump of snow on Mt taranaki on Tuesday night and I thought, 'perfect for the photos' with sun, cloud and light winds forecast for Friday through to Sunday. 
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