We woke at 5:30, and prepared to leave. For breakfast, I had a huge pot of porridge with a container of Up&Go poured in, as well as some sweetened condensed milk and nuts and raisins. At least it'll keep me going for a couple of hours, unlike the cooked breakfast I had yesterday.
The ride was hilly, following along the side of the Manawatu river valley. Greg stopped at one point to take a picture of a flock of sheep. How clichéd.
We finally reached Ashurst after 36 km. We had already climbed 700 metres. We stopped at a cafe where I bought a huge breakfast of pancakes and bacon, as well as a gigantic scone and three (!) milkshakes (the milkshakes weren't very big).
From Ashurst we rode on into Palmerston North, detouring off-route to go into the central city. We had s shopping list: fuel for Greg's stove, a new pot handle, a charger and battery pack for me, a new memory card for my GoPro, some groceries, and Greg wanted to get his bike checked out because it was skipping gears again.
I also decided to mail my old saddle home rather than throw it away; I needed a saddle for my commuter bike and this one would be fine for that. So I went to the post shop and in a few minutes my bike was lighter by one saddle.
We got all our purchases sorted out, and left our bikes at the shop while we went off for something to eat. I had a big bowl of Vietnamese beef and noodle soup. Delicious.
When we returned to the bike shop, they said my bike was fine, but Greg's had some major problems. His rear cassette was very loose, because his rear hub was worn and in the process of failing. The only solution would be to rebuild the wheel, which would take hours. An alternative would be to just buy a whole new wheel -- which is exactly what Greg did. An hour later, we were on our way.
Back on the course, we immediately began to climb, up and over the Tararua Ranges. I was feeling quite flat by this stage, and just took my time. After zipping down the other side, the course left the main road and headed along yet another gravel road. This time it was slightly downhill, and lots of fun, though it was still a bit tricky because of the off-camber gravel.
About 5 km from Pahiatua, I felt myself wake up. It was like a switch had been pressed and I suddenly felt awake again.
We finally reached the town of Pahiatua, where we ate a Chinese buffet. Not great food, but filling enough.
After eating, we pressed on to Eketahuna. As we were riding along we met Dave. He said the campground at Eketahuna closed at 7:30, so we raced to get there on time.
At first we made good progress, and it seemed that we would make it on time. But then we reached another long climb, which slowed is down. we finally reached Eketahuna about 10 minutes late, but we still got in fine.
I set up my tent, blew up my air mattress and lay down to check the pressure -- and immediately fell asleep! I'm very tired from the exercise and the lack of sleep.
When I got up, I promptly stood on a tent peg. Ouch! My foot is sore now...I hope it won't stop me pedalling tomorrow.
We have ridden a total of 150 km, and climbed over 1,500 metres today. A good solid day on the Tour Aotearoa.
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