This day started off with hope and promise, but turned into a nightmare at the end as I experienced something I’ve never seen before – rural New Zealand fully booked out.
The end of the day left me scrabbling around for a place to stay, including entertaining the option of sleeping with a motellier’s friend.
But first, the statistics…
The Statistics
It was another big cycle day where I covered 126km over a ten and half hour period. Their was a moderate amount of climbing, but in all a long but relatively easy day.
Misty start to the day
This day, I was out of bed at 5:30, and on the road by 6:15. These early starts though are meaning its almost always foggy. And today was no exception; however, the fog soon lifted as I rode into Rakaia Gorge, revealing a beautiful day.
As I entered the Gorge, the temperature noticably dropped and my breath became visible.
The Rakaia Gorge is lovely in the morning. Owen and I used to come here to play golf, where if you mis-hit some of the holes its a long way down to retrieve your ball.
I’m getting much better at this riding thing. I’m finding I can now resting while riding through standing up in the peddles and using the like a slow stepper. Otherwise, drop gears down and spin at 10kph for 10 mins recharged my batteries.
My soreness in the butt is also gone. Things are improving!
The road gradient is also deceptive. A long 2km stretch looks flat but the cycle computer shows you’ve climbed 30 meters.
Lily from Hororata
Rolling into Hororata, Lily made my breakfest and we got chatting because she’s just finished her post-graduate qualifications as a Forensic Scientist – a real CSI person.
Lily’s hoping to get a professional role in the New Zealand Police and has applied. But there’s an 8 week wait until they sort out their preferred candidates. And then there’s the fitness test and psych test before she even
Plan B is to become a python computer programmer – something that her and I could talk about. And we had a fine old chat about what the income’s like and her prospects of employment.
While she waits for the Police, her and her dad are looking at creating a smart house using cheap computer technology. Their house is almost off grid, and smart arduino devices are ideal for controlling temperature and power usage/charging.
I was impressed with Lily’s ambitions and I’ve never met a forensic scientist before. I wish her all the best in her endeavours.
Ashburton soils
A few days ago I blogged about North Canterbury’s lush farm land and rich soil. And I wanted to see what it was like further south.
I saw lots of paddocks where farmers had collected up the large river rocks into piles, so they can better farm the remaining soil.
It’s seemed a fix designed for the farmers benefit. Right beside the large rocks was an open pit that showed the large material continued below the surface layer. Liquids would flow through this soil like a sieve.
And I cycled past dairy urine pools which saturate the soil so nitrogen from the urine can’t be absorbed and goes straight down into the water table.
There was evidence of the bad farming behaviour Wellington government criticises.
Pretty Villages and Interesting History
Here’s a pretty little place I didn’t expect. Its called Ruapuna, and if you blinked you’ll miss it. Its claim to fame is a very pretty small church, and a hall. That’s it.
I’ve always thought the modern narrative about the Maori/European interface has, for the last 3 decades, been highjacked into a liberal post-modern narrative centered around exploitation and undelivered promises.
This is a plague just before Alford Forest called Singletree. Its got a lovely plaque that talks about the respect the Europeans had for a Matai tree valued by the Maori.
It was sweet.. Its hi-res link is here.
Rolling into Geraldine
I got into Geraldine about 5:30 ish and fully expected to be able to waltz in and get a room somewhere, especially since the Easter Weekend which had caused me logistic problems now caused me traffic problems as everyone went home.
It turns out Geraldine was fully booked. I turned up at this place, on my mate Neil’s recommendation, and it was “fully booked” with a fishing party.
Everywhere I called, all the motels were full. Online AirBnB showed no vacancies (although Rebecca found some). The only place I could find was the camping ground, and they only had tent sites available – an unattractive option given it had just started raining.
The worst part of the conversation is that each motellier I rang was cheerful that they were fully booked. Yeah, great from your perspective, but how about helping me out?
After about an hour of frantic calling around, where one of the motelliers even suggested I might be able to sleep with her friend for the night, my options were not expanding. I think she was only half joking…
Neil Kelly pitched in to help online. He connected through to Expedia which showed the pub I eat in had accommodation. He paid for it and sent me through the confirmed transaction which I showed the publican. Only to be told the hotels computer links aren’t working an there is no accommodation.
It was only after I retold my efforts to the local publican and complained about the Expedia booking did the publican finally say “oh yeah… we’ve got these backpacker beds in the dorm which are empty”.
I ended up with a $50 room all to myself!
Where was this option when I arrived, and why did it only manifest now after I had spent over an hour in front of them on the phone.
Geraldine pissed me off and I never want to see this dumb town again.
Pictures or it Never Happened
