Mountains to Sea.

 An gentle ride yesterday afternoon...to the Sea end of the Mountains to Sea trail..then back into town up the trail, by the river. Across town along the bike route and back up to our coach's home again.

We stopped by the library in Castlecliff again...some bike trail themed gates...

And a beautiful sky

Any excuse to stop for an "ice block"!! (Ice lolly)

Then to find the trail...

The river is flowing to the right....and the waves were quite active outside the South Mole.

The trail actually ends on the North Mole, but they are working on that.

That is the North Mole on the right...and then looking back up the river by the Port...

You have to go on the road until after the Port, but the path then mostly follows the river and is 2m wide concrete, some of it up on a stop bank.

And  sitting on our car waiting for us .....

Not quite a dragon!...a praying mantis.

Walk with views, mountains and sea

 On Monday we had a walk before supper....up the hill where we are staying, along the road behind the houses we can see on the other side of this short valley and back down....just enough... although perhaps a walk after food would have been better, to coordinate cooking in a shared kitchen!!

We were fortunate to see Ruapehu before the clouds rolled in to hide the peak. 

Where we were, it stayed brightly sunny.

Bridge at Upokongaro

 We had a ride from our coach's house (keeping the bikes there is better, not in a car that could sit here getting very hot, and safer too) down to the Mountains to Sea path by Dublin Bridge ( sorry no photo yet!) and up through Papaiti to Upokongaro.

This was where there once was a ferry to Upokongaro. There was a shop, and there still is a school, café, pub and church.

When we left Whanganui in February 2020 everyone was eagerly awaiting the moving of the bridge from a field by the river....but last minute technical difficulties meant that we missed it!

It is beautiful...I am still not keen on heights...and drops....but I did ride over it, and on the return, held hands with a French tourist from Dijon to help her walk across... mutual assistance!!

A model of a Moa...the equivalent for this continent of and ostrich...but bigger!

And on our way back.... couldn't resist this...a postbox!!

It is a relief that this bridge is there...no need to ride for 10 km up the state highway!!