Sunday 12 September 2021

Leader: Owen Cox

With the move to Level 2 we could go a bit further than in the last few weeks. So despite the short notice from lockdown and a change in leader, three of us thought it would be nice to bike somewhere other than QE2 Park or the Waikanae River bank so we did the scheduled trip.

We started from the road end at Kaitoke at 9.30 am and biked the 10 km to the Summit quite quickly in cool conditions. After a break we headed down through the Summit Tunnel. I must remember to put new batteries in the torches as two of them could have been replaced by a couple of glow worms and we'd have had better light. Fortunately, the Summit Tunnel is straight. The Wairarapa side was pretty windy so we took it slowly. Part way down we came to the new Siberia Bridge. You need to dismount to get on this and it was not bike-able today because of strong cross winds. A short freewheel down and we then got to Cross Creek. Here we checked out the foundations of the old engine sheds before having a snack in the shelter.

The return climb up the incline was not fast, as walking was necessary for some bits because of the wind. I walked a bit further than the other two. At the top we biked back through the tunnel and as the weather was looking a bit threatening we headed straight back to the road end. Nice fast cycle down with not much wind, and with gravity on our side. From there we went for coffee at Plimmerton before getting home at 3.30 pm.

Those on the trip were:

Marian Cox, Owen Cox, Paula Richardson

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.