going refined sugar free

An interesting blogpost from Millgirl

East Mole, Whanganui rivermouth

The Shed. and a mountain....

 The Pirate (and me!) helped a friend put up A Shed!!!

On the way home we rode up Mount View Road......and saw the marker for number 53...

 then we noticed the view.....Mount Ruapeho has been hiding in the clouds or haze every other time we've been up this road!!

So that is why the road is so named!!

life goes on

Wherever we are.

"J"s ill in hospital and daughter is dealing with the Boys by herself...naturally they are all missing him.
 How do you explain to two and a half year olds where dad is?

Not a lot we can do from halfway round the world, apart from re-assure, and tell her that she is doing everything ok.

focussing differently

wandering in Whanganui.....betweens and throughs....

moth

the seasons begin to turn

Morning fog now over the hills, not just in the river valley.

Victoria Park, Whanganui

roads

This road was being prepared for a new "seal"...tar and chippings...often the surface is scraped off and chewed up and "graded" with a layer of chippings, which the traffic helps to compact before it is sealed.  This was obviously a quick fix!!

 

The speed limit is 30k, after a bit that is increased to 50k.  Normal maximum speed is 100k on the open road, 70k at the edge of town and 50k closer in.
However as I found, not all of these fellows observe the limits on fresh seal....

mind you, they do look like REAL trucks!!!

A few k further on across the ashfield my windscreen on the van was hit by a chip thrown up by a speeding lorry. You could feel the whole screen move and I don't know how it didn't crack or shatter.

This isn't a road I'd take when cycling as I try and avoid most State Highways.
Newer ones do have a shoulder a metre or more wide, but this is unpredictable.
Even then the trucks do suck you in towards them.    The shoulder is also used when you are being overtaken in a car...you move over to make it easier for the overtaker.

Bridges generally don't have any shoulder so the road narrows on most bridges.

There is no fence at the side of the ditch and it seems that it is your responsibility not to fall in it!!   If there is a fence, it WILL be an electric fence as cattle are set to graze the verges....and it WILL be turned on!!
  I think it is really the attitude of self reliance and looking after yourself.

 UK "Health and Safety" would have nightmares here!!  -Perhaps H&S have gone too far and people expect too much to be done for them?  I don't know.

journey home to Whanganui

 Our coffee stop on the journey from Hamilton was well worth waiting for...
Bosco's in Te Kuiti.
Good coffee, top class food and service, art on the walls (for sale), interesting magazines to read.  A Bush garden out the back with benches and a fountain.
Owned and run by a cyclist too-can't fault it!!

Soon after that we turned off by these cliffs

 and then I saw new bits of countryside, followed by the roads that I'd missed when I went on the Eastern side of Ruapehu.

Another "pit stop"

before we completed the journey home.

Dinner was out at the Red Lion in Whanganui- who would want to cook after a week away and a four hour journey home?!