DAY EIGHTEEN

Ashburton/ Hakatere River Trail (19m one way) easy walk or cycle. The trail meanders through riverside willows and past farm land. Sounds lovely doesnt it. Well that's how the information read. In fact finding the start of the trail was the first challenge and then it was one challenge after the other. The info didn't mention the broken trees hanging over the track or the many patches of thick gravel or that in places it was quite narrow, and about 3km riding on a gravel road. Never mind the lack of signage making guesswork, the help from a very friendly local cyclist and crossed fingers the way to arrive at the destination. 55km and 4hr 30min arrived back at motorhome after having ridden about 12km on a tarsealed road coming back to by pass some yucky bits. Anyway both Driver and Leader managed to stay on the saddle, keep their bikes upright and survived another difficult challenge. Oh by the way Hakatere Beach was beautiful.Read more