9-12 February 2022

Leader: Bryan Wild

The trip was designed to dovetail in with the weekend trip to Kaitoke, which unfortunately didn’t go ahead due to bad weather.

We all arrived at the Top Ten campground in Martinborough – a very upmarket and pleasant site with a cool pool... and I mean cool!

The temperatures were already in the high twenties and nudging thirty and so we had a pleasant evening with nibbles and a glass of wine and made some decisions about the next day's ride.

Thursday early morning was warm and promised a hot day and it didn’t disappoint! Our leisurely start was welcomed and we were on the road by about 9.30am after a false start, as Bryan had taken a wrong turn just to get out of Martinborough... but no matter we were soon on the right road and heading out towards Tablelands, after which we knew that we had to take a left turn and head first to Longbush and then follow the road out to Gladstone. In the heat that by now had climbed past 30 Celsius, we made it to Gladstone and a very welcome rest at the well known hostelry the ‘Gladstone Inn’ where we had a very enjoyable lunch and refreshment.

Eventually we knew it was time to press on and so we worked out the best ways for us to get back to Martinborough. It was simply head down and bum up. There was a bit of wind getting up now which cooled things a bit. We all made it back to the campsite by mid to late afternoon. Funny thing... we had all worked up yet another big appetite for the evening of more refreshments followed by scrabble.

Friday – after the big 70 km day ride of the previous day we decided that we would have an easy day, so some went in to Greytown and I (Bryan) headed over to Cape Palliser and had a short walk at the Pinnacles and then carried on to the lighthouse.

The rain set in by early evening and so we repaired to the caravan with our platters of food and also sent out for pizza. More scrabble followed and a new champion emerged – take a bow Susan who won games both Thursday and Friday nights.

Those on the trip were:

Brandon Holman, Bryan Wild, Dave Cox, Susan Robertson, Elizabeth Holman

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.