Day 6 - Whakamaru to Piropiro (Camp Epic) - 78 km, 1,593 m

It was a long day today and at 10:00 PM at night in the middle of the Pureora Forest when the blog I had just written disappeared from the screen of my tablet just before I hit post - I spat the dummy and said it can wait.

Now here I am two days later at Taumaranui where we decided to have a rest day and I have time availabe to catch up with things like giving the bike a clean and service and sorting out the blog.

However, rather than try to re-write a blog for a day two days ago I am taking the easy option (with his consent) and "borrowing" most of what Peter wrote for his blog post for the day.

Peter's Bog follows:

"Today was probably one of the most challenging days in all my years of riding.

The day started at the guest house with breakfast at 7.00 am and on the road by about 7.45 am.

The day was a perfect one for riding with virtually no wind and clear skies. The temperature started in the teens and got up to around 25 degrees on the afternoon.

The road out from Whakarmaru was good then we started on the timber trail with a climb of 16 kms climbing about 650 metres.All quite doable in theory but the track was quite challenging. We started the climb at 11.00 am and finished it at about 1.00 pm!

It was then on to the second climb 10 kms with 650 metres of climbing which took us to 970 metres above sea level.

To be frank I was knackered at the top but enjoyed the trip down.

We also saw the plaque showing the centre of the North Island of NZ

Then it was on the Camp Epic where we are staying the night and to be frank the last 10 kms were a real struggle for me as I was getting tired and my concentration lapse was a constant concern. I had one minor fall and was ok thankfully.

We finally reached our destination at 7.55 pm after riding 72 kms and climbing 1500 metres."

Back to Chris:

Prior ro today Peter would have said his most memorable ride (for all the wrong reasons) probably was the "Big River/Waiuta" ride he did in March 23! I'm beginning to wonder just how much longer I'll have my Aussie riding buddy happily coming on the NZ rides I organise. However to be fair I have said all along you come to NZ ro ride trails not roads!

Again, my thanks to Peter for his blog above and his great company on all our NZ, Aussie and European rides - he's simply the best of riding buddies.









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